Ask the Characters
by Aleron's Sword
Summary: For those who read my stories, this is your chance to ask the characters what you wish. Review to ask your questions. Crossover at times during themes. Chapter 13: Scenario and Announcement. Look for the reboot and ask questions there.
1. Let the Show Begin!

**Okay, truth be told, this one just came to me out of the blue. I was thinking for the plot of some of my stories – after reading Element Commander's 'We Are the Smashers' – when this little birdie flew in. This is pretty much based of of EC's 'Review to the Smashers' section in his story. So, a bit of credit goes to him for this.**

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A lone person is sitting in a dark-brown leather chair on a studio stage, facing a crowd of people. A few other chairs were sitting across from the person, enough to hold a small crowd of sorts. He has jet-black hair that is always short. A white t-shirt with a black and white sword - with the letters 'A' and 'S' printed on it - is on the front with a matching shield on the back. Black jeans covered his legs and had half a dozen pouches per side on them, each holding an object. White tennis shoes – with the same sword from the shirt on the sides – were his footwear. This person...is Aleron's Sword.

He was leaning back in the seat, one leg on the other, swinging the higher up foot lazily. He was host of this show, but it has yet to start. The OC's in his stories were invited to this show, but they have yet to show up themselves. So, it was a little boring waiting for them, but AS has a lot of patience. He was about to fall asleep when the door to backstage opened, showing two beings. Jerking himself awake, he looked towards the newcomers. One of them was human, holding the door for what looked like a robotic insect, Marcus Flint and Aleron Bane (Just to avoid confusion, the author will be referred as Sword, the OC as Aleron) respectively.

"This the right studio?" Marcus asked.

"**Yeah, this should be it."** responded Aleron.

"I hope so, I do NOT want a repeat of the last one."

"**Don't remind me..."** Aleron said, sweat-dropping.

"Don't worry," Sword called to them. "you got the right one."

Walking in, and shutting the door as well, Marcus and Aleron walked onto the stage and took a seat, though Aleron decided to stand instead. After getting seated/situated, Sword straightened himself up in his seat. He was about to open his mouth when the back-stage door opened again, this time revealing a teenage girl around Aleron's height, Teresa Yuna. She closed the door, then walked onto the stage, taking a seat besides Marcus. Aleron raised a non-existent eyebrow to the new arrival, wondering on why she was here. He also noticed some form of tail on her lower back.

After Teresa was comfortable, Sword signaled to someone off-stage to start the show. Cameras were positioning themselves to get a good angle on the stage while the OC's started looking at each other.

"We are live in 5...4...3...2..." one of the cameramen called out.

"Hello everyone and welcome to my show, 'Ask the Characters'!" Sword called out. "Those who have no doubt read some of my stories, you probably have a few questions that you want to ask but didn't put in a review. It's cool, it's cool, for here's your chance to ask, right here, right now! But, before we do get started, I would like to introduce the characters first."

Sword sweeps his hand to Aleron first. "First, I would like to introduce you all to the first one of them all, Aleron Bane!"

Aleron shuffled slightly in his spot from his introduction. Sword then moved his hand to where it was pointing at Marcus.

"Second, he's a best friend of Aleron and has near-superhuman strength to boot, I give you, Marcus Flint!"

Marcus waved to the camera and crowd before the hand shifted to Teresa.

"And last but certainly not least, we have Teresa Yuna. She can be a little bit of a trickster now, but she's still nice to have around."

Teresa winked to the cameras and the crowd. Sword then lowered his hand before continuing.

"Now, you may be wondering on why I called you three here, right?" Sword asked. All there OC's nodded their heads. "Right, there are probably dozens of people just itching to ask you all questions, and this show is here to answer them. Right now it's just you three, but as the show gets more popular, more people will be allowed to come, and sometimes other popular authors will guest star on this show." Sword then whipped his arm towards the camera, index finger pointing out towards it. "And I would like to give a shout-out to The Element Commander, for if it wasn't for his Reviews to the Smashers section of his main story, We Are the Smashers, this show would not be here now!"

Before he could move his arm back though, a metal lock-box fell from the upper-stage railings, nailing Sword on top of his head. He brought both his arms up, covering the spot where the box hit.

"OOOWWW! WHAT THE HELL! WHO'S THE SMART-A** THAT DROPPED THAT LOCK-BOX ON MY HEAD?" he demanded. He shot up out of his seat into a standing position. He then tilted his head upwards, searching for whoever nailed him. Aleron and Marcus started chuckling like mad. Sword shot them a fierce glare which shut them both up. After sitting back down – with an anime-style lump on his head – he looked at the guilty lock-box. On a strip of tape, the word 'Questions from the reviews' was written on it.

"Talk about painful convenience, I get nabbed by the review box..." he muttered, lifting the box and fishing for its key in his pouches. He was able to find it and insert it into the lock.

"Alright, minor distraction aside, lets get on with the questions." He called out, opening the box.

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**Okay, this show runs mainly on reviews, so review to ask the characters questions you have. Just like EC's RttS section of his story, you can ask anything you wish. Anonymous review welcome as well. Flames, however, will be ignored. This will continue so long as there is a steady rate of reviews coming. As my stories get further along their plots, more OC's will be here. And if this is popular enough, other authors can request to appear as well.**


	2. Episode 1

**Okay, second chapter of Ask the Characters. Last chapter, I asked all of you to ask your questions via review. This chapter will answer the ones asked so far.**

**Read, enjoy, and review to ask your questions.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any franchises or brands mentioned in this. I only own this show and my OC's.**

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"Right then, lets see what we got in here" Sword said, opening the Review Questions box.

Inside the box were two slips of paper with one question each. Sword sweat-dropped a bit, seeing so few questions for his characters.

"Seriously...? Only two?" he muttered under his breath. "Oh well, make due with what you got..."

He pulled one of the pieces of paper out and read the question.

"Right then, this one is from Ryu Dragonclaw asking: What is your favorite kind of cake or pie?"

"**Vanilla cake."** Aleron answered first.

"Hmm...I have to say chocolate ice-cream cake." Marcus said.

"Cinnamon Apple pie for me." Teresa answered happily.

"Right then, next question." Sword announced. He pulled the other slip of paper out of the box. "Hmm...This one's for you Marcus from Addie Marie Jones. 'How did you feel about Autumn making dreamy glances at you for one entire chapter in my story?'" Aleron's eyes grew a little wide at this. "'Just wondering...because Autumn's wanting to do it again...in this show...with Dylan the talking Pikachu. I bid you goodbye and-'"

"**WHOA WHOA WHOA!" **Aleron shouted suddenly. **"Marcus? You got some girl falling for you? And you were in a different story as well?"**

Marcus' cheeks glowed cherry red at this, along with him rubbing the back of his head. "Eh heh heh heh...Yeah...about that...I asked Sword if I could be a character in her story..." He then muttered the last part under his breath. "And I think...Autumn's kinda...hot as well..."

Aleron had veins showing on his head. He was also slowly turning a shade of red over his body, as well as shaking violently. Sword's, Marcus', and Teresa's eyes shrunk at this, while Sword leaned over to Marcus to say something to him. "Hey, I'd start running if I were you." he said, sweating a little. Marcus didn't waste any time listening to this, as he bolted up from his seat and ran to the exit. Aleron done a yell of anger at the top of his lungs, then took off after Marcus, yelling things that wouldn't be allowed to be heard on TV.

Sword and Teresa done a big sweat-drop on this. After a few minutes, Sword cleared his throat. "Well then...that was...interesting..."

"Yeah..." Teresa said as well. "Remind me to _never_ get him pissed off..."

"Right then...Teresa? Want to wrap this up?"

"Okay. That it for today's show. Remember to review to ask your questions for us and we'll see you next time." Teresa said, waving to the camera. Sword waved as well as the camera pans away from the stage.

"And we're off." A cameraman said.

Both people stopped waving, putting their hands in their laps. Sword got up from his seat and stretched a bit. Teresa followed suit, stretching as well.

"Well, that was fun." Teresa stated, smiling a little.

"Yeah, glad you enjoyed it. I don't think Aleron and Marcus did though..." Sword answered, sweat-dropping a little.

"Well, I'm gonna go back home, hope to be here again soon." Teresa waved goodbye, heading for the exit.

Sword waved back smiling a bit as well. After the door closed, he walked to a different door, which was a wooden dark-brown door, and opened it. He walked through and closed the door, locking it as well.

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**Just like Teresa said, leave your questions via reviews. You can ask up to 10 questions of any topic you like (except lemons and similar stuff), and don't worry, another OC will be able to come soon.**


	3. Day 2: Show Preparation

**Third chapter of Ask the Characters. Thank you for the reviews/questions everyone.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any franchises or brands mentioned on this show. I only the show and my OC's.**

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_**Day 2: Show Preparation**_

The next day came, the sun rising, the birds singing, Sword snoring loudly in his room after last nights show. He was tired mainly from some dream he had. Just as the sun was level with his windowsill is when his alarm clock went off. Your typical alarm clock would do a beeping noise. For Swords though...lets just sit back and watch.

As his alarm clock starts going off, you would hear the sound of a mega-ton explosion. The reason for such a loud alarm? He sleeps like a log, but his room is soundproof. Swords eyes snap open and he leaps out of his bed, heart racing and clamping his hands to his ears.

"GAH! HIT THE DIRT!" he yells.

After the initial sound is gone, he reaches up to turn his alarm off before it repeats. He slams his hand on the 'Alarm off' button just before the explosion could sound again. He breaths a sigh of relief, then picks himself up off his floor. Walking to his closet, Sword opens it to pick out his clothing for today's show. His clothes are mainly black and white, but each have a different sword and pattern on them. One of them was a checkered shirt with a sickle sword on it. Another was a diagonal striped shirt with a arm-sword.

After picking out his clothing, a different pair of black jeans and a zigzag patterned shirt with a claymore on it, Sword then proceeded out the door and into the studio. He walked to the entrance of the studio, where he opened the door, expecting someone.

"In three...two...one..." he whispered to himself.

"**MARCUS GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!" **a familiar voice rang out.

A person ran through the open door, with a panicked look on his face, Marcus. Right behind him was a still mad Aleron, ready to maul him. Sword just sighed and put his right foot right in the path of the mad Al. Aleron tripped on his foot, flying forward onto the floor, and continued rolling until he hit a wall. A small dust cloud formed from the impact and when it cleared, Aleron is shown in a heap with swirls in his eyes. Marcus was sweating bullets from all the running he had to do just to survive. Sword walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. Marcus jumped slightly and jerked his head around. He breathed a sigh of relief, glad to see Sword instead of Al for once.

"Well...how was exercise?" Sword asked casually.

"You...do not...want...to know..." Marcus breathed out.

"Well, best get ready, show's gonna start in a couple of hours."

"Right, what...about Teresa?"

"Don't worry, she'll be here."

"And Al?"

"Again, don't worry, I'll handle him."

Marcus then proceeded to get himself ready for the show, while Sword walked over to Aleron. As he was standing over the unconscious Al, Sword just shook his head back and forth slowly with eyes closed. He then reached up in the air, but when his arm was halfway out, a small portal formed. Sword reached into it and grabbed something inside. He pulled his hand back out, holding some kind of disc with a red light in the center.

"Been a while since I last used this..." Sword whispered to himself.

He put the disk on Alerons cannon limb. The disk attached itself and the light turned yellow.

Sword then turned towards a security camera. "You may be wondering on what that thing is that I put on Aleron. Well, you'll have to wait until the show starts. Anyway, hold back on the questions for a bit. When at least three of my stories update, mainly the newer ones, then you can ask the questions again. Until then, this is Aleron's Sword, saying see you later." He then walks off, dragging the unconscious Aleron with him.

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**Yeah, just hold back on them until said amount of stories are updated.**


	4. Episode 2

**Fourth chapter of Ask the Characters. Sorry about the delay, but I was a little busy thinking of the plots for my other stories.**

**Lets get going**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or any major brands or franchises. I only only the story and my OC's.**

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_**Ask the Characters**_

_**Day 2: Showtime**_

Sword was dragging the unconscious Aleron back-stage, where he then propped him up against a nearby wall. Sword was breathing a little hard after doing the deed.

"Man, kinda forgot how much he weighs…" he said breathing out. "Hmm…Show's gonna start in an hour, might as well wake him up."

Sword walked to the studios kitchen, looking for a frying pan. After a few wrong openings, he was able to get a good sized pan out. By good sized, it was around the size of his head. He walked back to Aleron who was in the same position that he was in when Sword left. He lifted the pan up to his shoulders, holding it like one of his claymores.

"Sorry Al, but kinda need you to wake up." Sword said, lifting the pan over his head. He brought it down with enough force that would pop a tire.

**-Marcus-**

Glad Sword was able to get Al off of me for the show. I was able to take a shower – courtesy of Sword making my 'room' almost like my house – to try and get the stench of sweat off of me. I was making eggs as well, making them sunny-side up. I was about to flip them until…

_**CLONG!**_

"**OOOOOWWWWWW! WHAT THE HELL?**"

I was able to flip the eggs alright, but due to that, they were stuck to the ceiling now. Swearing under my breath for a missed breakfast, I turned off the stove and scraped the eggs off the ceiling. Throwing away said eggs, I went to the door to see what happened. Sword and Al were nearby, with Sword holding a frying pan for some reason.

**-Sword-**

"**WHAT WAS THAT FOR?**" Aleron yelled at me, both claws holding the spot I hit him at. The pan, now ruined, had the imprint of the upper part of his face, details and all.

"Shows gonna start in less than an hour, don't want you to miss it." I said casually, walking off to dispose of the pan. I could even feel Al getting angry just by walking away. I just smiled and brought my fingers up, ready to snap them, but had then in front of me so he couldn't see. His anger peaked and bolted after me, intending to tackle. I just snapped my fingers, and let the disk I put on him handle the rest.

**-Third Person-**

Swords fingers snapped loudly and the light on the disk of the cannon limb turned green. The device then started to discharge enough electricity to stun him, but not enough to hurt. After it was done, the light turned back to its yellow color.

"**GAH! What the…?**" Aleron grunted from the discharge.

"Al? Are you alright?" Marcus asked, concerned.

Marcus ran over to his friend, checking to make sure he was alright. He did, however, notice the disk attached to him.

"Huh? Whats this?" Marcus asked.

"**Whats what?**" Aleron responded.

"There's some kind of disc attached to you."

Marcus tried to reach for the dis, only for Sword to grab his wrist when it got close.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you." Sword cautioned.

"Why not?" questioned Marcus.

"That disc can send out enough juice to stop your friend. Do the math on how much it would take to affect him and you'll find out why I stopped you." Sword answered, releasing Marcus' wrist.

That answer was enough to make Marcus not want to touch the disc now, lest he becomes a way darker tan than what he's at now. Al, however, was a little ticked at what was placed on him.

"**Oi, get that thing off of me!**" he demanded.

Sword just shook his head lightly. "Sorry, but I can't do that."

"**And why's that?**"

"Unless you can keep your anger in check – in which I don't want a repeat of yesterday – that will stay on you until I decide that it will be removed. Anyone that attempts to take it off with receive the same amount of electricity flowing through them that would 'stun' you." Sword explained in a serious tone.

Aleron was ticked at the reason, but thought about what would happen if someone else _did_ try to remove it. He shuddered slightly at the image of someone being fried by the disc.

"Anyway, I'll be waiting on the stage for you, Marcus and Teresa." Sword said, calmly walking away.

He rounded a corner and ended up running into none other that Teresa in her human form. She yelped in surprise and ended up losing focus, reverting her back to her Zorua self.

"Ah geez, sorry Teresa." Sword apologized quickly.

"Its okay Sword. I can just change back." Teresa said. "So, where were you going before you literally ran into me?"

"I was heading for the studio to get ready for the show today. Wanna come?" he offered.

"Sure, just let me change back." Teresa gladly said. She closed her eyes and focused on her human self. A few seconds later, she was back to herself again, though with the tail showing. Both of them headed for the studio, getting into place for the show. Al and Marcus shown up a little later, each taking a seat on the stage. A camera crane swerved into place in front of the stage. Another cameraman was checking his watch, counting down to showtime. When it was on the last seven seconds, he called out.

"Alright, we are live in 5…4…3…2…"

**-Showtime-**

"Hello everyone and welcome back to Ask the Characters, the show where you can ask us whatever you want." Sword announced, starting the show. "Yesterday, only two questions were asked, but they got some pretty interesting results and…just a moment." he cut off shortly. He held his hands up and right after, the same lock-box from before fell into his hands.

"Ah, there we go." he said, lowering his arms and putting the box in his lap. "Now, as I was saying…Aleron, Marcus and Teresa are back again, ready for some more questions. Without further ado, lets get to them." He pulled out the box's key and unlocked it. Inside were significantly more slips of papers than last time.

"Alright, the first few questions are from Ghost of the Shadows. One for Aleron and the rest for all."

_Aleron: Could you be a ninja?_

"**Maybe, if I can be able to paint myself pitch black and quiet my footsteps, then yeah.**"

_Everyone: Do you guys watch any sports?_

"Nah." Sword answered.

"Basketball sometimes." answered Marcus as well.

"**A little Football, but nothing else.**" Al followed.

"No, I don't like to watch those." Teresa answered calmly.

_What is your favorite Pokemon?_

"Hmm…I would have to say Gallade." Sword said.

"Probably Blaziken." Marcus answered.

"**Kinda hard to pick favorites, so I'll skip.**" Al calmly answered.

"Zorua." Teresa answered simply.

_Who is most likely to be killed my Alerons anger?_

"No one since that disc is on him." Sword answered quickly.

_How would Teresa do in a guitar show-down against Sword?_

"Badly, I don't play guitar." Teresa said with a small frown.

_Who would win a race if you all used stock cars?_

"Depends, straight drive or circuit? Also, Aleron can't drive due to him having no fingers." Sword said.

_Which one of you is the most ninja?_

"Probably Teresa. She can turn into anyone she wishes." replied Marcus.

_Do any of you like the bands Linkin Park, Green Day or Muse?_

"Linkin Park." Sword and Aleron answered at the same time.

"Green Day." Teresa said with slightly closed eyes.

"None." answered Marcus.

_Who can last the longest in a fighting match against Chuck Norris?_

"Nuh-uh, not gonna happen." Sword said quickly.

_Can Aleron last longer than Marcus in a zombie apocalypse?_

"Yeah, he's pretty much made of metal." Marcus said, tapping his knuckles against Aleron to prove it.

"Right, next batch of questions are from Auramaster101." Sword announced, pulling out the next list.

_What is your favorite Kirby ability?_

"Huh(**Huh**)?" Marcus, Aleron and Teresa asked.

"Heh, I've only played the one for the N64, but it would have to be cutter/electric." Sword answered with a small smile.

_If you were attacked by Michael Myers, what would you do?_

Upon this being asked, Sword reached for the handle of the sword on his shirt. Instead of cloth, he pulled out a real sword, surprising Teresa. Marcus quickly put on his metal gloves while Aleron charged his cannon slightly, but it gave off a noticeable glow. Teresa…just turned herself into a dog.

"Is this what you were looking for?" Sword asked.

Sword pressed the claymore up against his shirt. Instead of pressing against his body, it turned back into cloth, going back into its place. Aleron let the energy energy in his cannon dissipate while Marcus took off his gauntlets. Teresa turned back into her human self again.

_What would you do during a day at the beach?_

"A bit of volleyball, and probably some sand-castles." Sword said, leaning back a bit.

"I would bring a boom-box and exercise a bit." Marcus answered.

"I would tan, but people would notice my tail." Teresa replied, doing a shy glance back at her tail.

"**I…would just stick to the shadows.**" Al said, sweat-dropping a little.

_What is your favorite song?_

"Getting Away With Murder by Papa Roach." Sword replied with a small grin.

"Monkey Wrench by the Foo Fighters." answered Marcus.

"**I don't exactly listen to music, sorry.**" Aleron said.

"Me neither." Teresa said as well.

"Okay, next batch of questions. These are from Addie Marie Jones." Sword said, pulling out a different list out.

_Aleron._

_What exactly did you do to Marcus once you caught him?_

"**I didn't catch him, and thus, couldn't do anything.**"

_How does being a Genesect make you…feel…?_

"**For one, I don't have to worry about broken bones or anything. But I kinda wish I was back to my normal self.**"

_You get peeved easily, don't you? I can tell._

"**Yeah, but due to this thing on my cannon, I can't let my anger go out of control, lest I have a near lightning strikes worth of electricity flowing through me.**"

_I dare ya to yank Teresa's tail._

"**Can't. I don't have any fingers.**"

_Marcus._

Sword just looked at the first question, with a small grin on his face. He has already given Marcus' phone number to this 'Autumn' by request, and to see what would be the reaction.

"Hey Marcus? You know that girl named Autumn?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah? What about it?" Marcus answered, cheeks going a little red.

"I gave her your phone number." Sword said with a silly grin that he was having trouble holding laughter.

Marcus' cheeks turned cherry red at this and looked away. At the same time, his cell-phone started ringing. He jumped a little and pulled it out. He hit the talk button, along with the speaker-phone option.

"Hello?" he asked the caller.

"Is this Marcus?" A female voice answered.

"Yes, this is. Might I -" he started, but was cut off.

"EEEEEE! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! IKNEWITIKNEWITIKNEWIT!" the caller squealed with such volume that a nearby set of glasses shattered. Marcus dropped his cell-phone to cover his ears, as well as Teresa and Sword. Even Aleron cringed at the screeching.

"MARCUS! ITS ME, AUTUMN! REMEMBER ME?" the caller, now known as Autumn, yelled.

"Yes, I do! Now please calm down!" Marcus yelled, still covering his ears.

"Okay…" Autumn replied, with her voice calmed down. "So, do you wanna date sometime?" She asked out of the blue.

Marcus' cheeks turned an even brighter red upon this.

"Uh…" he started saying, but then he started doing static sounds. "I'm sorry, but_**-static-**_breaking up. I'll_**-static-**_you…uh…" He done a long static noise, continuing it until he hit the end call button. He picked up his cell-phone and put it back in his pocket. Marcus whipped his head around to face Sword, who was trying hard not to laugh.

"DUDE! THAT WAS NOT COOL! WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" he yelled, his cheeks a much brighter shade of red.

Sword broke out laughing, holding his gut and leaning back in his seat.

"I'm sorry…hahaha…but you have to admit that was funny!"

"Anyway, don't you have a show to do?" Marcus fired at him.

"Haha…right, sorry about that." Sword said, wiping away a tear from laughing so much. "Continuing where we let off…"

_Care to share your 'experience' with the peeved-off Aleron?_

"Two words…Not. Fun."

_Sword._

_What kind of name is Sword? Is it your real name, or some flashy stage name to protect your identity?_

"My full author name is Aleron's Sword, but I go with Sword just to avoid confusion between me and Al."

_Teresa._

_Does everyone know you have a tail?_

"Everyone here? Yes. Back home? Only my friends and everyone that witnessed me change do." Teresa said casually.

_Why do you hide your Zorua form? It's SO CUTE!_

"I don't know…Maybe I just feel more comfortable in my human form than my Zorua form."

"And thats that for those questions. Now for the next from OrangeZest100." Sword said, grabbing another list.

_What are your life-threatening weaknesses._

"**Not sharing if you'll use it against me.**" Al said with a slight cringe.

"Same." Marcus, Teresa and Swords said at the same time.

_What's your favorite book?_

"The Twilight saga." Teresa said with a dreamy smile.

"**I don't read books.**" Al said, waving a claw to further prove his point to books.

"Mainly books on how to maintain a good body if that counts." Marcus said.

_Do you like Assassin's Creed?_

Sword just smiled and held out his right hand in the air. He held his middle and ring fingers together while the pinky and index fingers were separate. He jolted his hand and a blade shout out of his wrist, slightly scaring the others.

"Yeah, I do. This just proves it as well." He jolted his hand again and the blade retracted, leaving no traces of being there. He puts the list of questions back in the box and pulls out a slip of paper with a single question on it.

"Okay, this one is from Ryu Dragonclaw."

_What would you do if you were playing Pokemon: Mystery Dungeon, but lost in one and lost all your items, including some rare ones as well?_

"I only go in dungeons that don't have me auto-save at the start. That, or have an escape orb prior to defeat." Sword casually said.

As he put the slip back in the box, a square piece of paper floated down from above. On it was some kind of rune drawn in purple ink. It landed flatly on the stage, causing Sword and the others to raise an eyebrow(a non-existent one for Aleron).

"Huh? What's this?" Sword questioned, approaching the rune. He knelt down to touch it, but before he could, it shined a bright purple, causing him to recoil. A cloud of purple smoke exploded out shortly afterward, cutting off vision. When it cleared, there was a small figure hovering a couple of feet off the floor. It looked like a child angel, but with a demonic appearance.

"I…AM…PURPLE!" it suddenly blurts out, with a purple light shining down on it to strengthen the weird factor. "Alright," it said, the lights cutting off. "lets get down to business. The most awesomest person in this room shall have an army of fully armed pikachus at their aid." It snaps its fingers and a crowd of pikachus appear, each carrying a gun or wearing armor. "My first question is…" the demon angel continued. "Who will destroy the cool-aid if he randomly bursts in?"

Marcus raised a hand at this, still wondering what's going on.

"Right then, next…What would you do if a Jigglypuff came in?"

No-one answered to this one, all confused on what was going on.

"Anyone? Come on…Ah well, there's always next time." The demon angel spun around, going faster as it went. All the pikachus vanished as a cyclone of wind formed. After a few seconds, the cyclone vanished, leaving the paper behind. It burst into flames shortly after, leaving a small scorch mark on the stage. Everyone was silent, still trying to process what happened. After a few seconds, Teresa was the one to break it.

"Okay…What the hell just happened here?" she asked to no-one in particular.

"I have no idea…" Sword responded. He turned his head to the camera, going to end today's show.

"Well then…Slight mind-screw moment aside, that will do for today's show. Remember to leave your questions and they will be answered. Until next time, this is Aleron's Sword…" he points a hand to Aleron

"**Um, Aleron Bane…**"

Swords hand shifts to Marcus.

"Marcus Flint…"

Teresa was next.

"And Teresa Yuna saying…"

"Good(**Good**) Night(**Night**)!" everyone said at the same time.

"And we are out." A cameraman shouted.

Everyone was still weirded out by the demon angel's appearance, but were able to shake it off. Teresa stood up and started to walk out. Marcus and Aleron followed suit. Before Marcus could leave though, Swords stopped him.

"Hey Marcus?" Sword asked. "Since you've already met Lucas, per chance you can bring him here for the next show?"

"Sure, I'll bring him over, provided he won't be scared." Marcus replied.

"Thanks."

Marcus walked out the door, joining Aleron and heading back home. Sword was alone on the stage, a little tired from the show. He then puts a hand to his chin, thinking about something.

"Hmm…If Lucas is coming, might as well invite Natasha, she will make things a little…interesting here." he muttered to himself.

He stood up and left the stage as well. He walked back to his room, closing the door and locking it for tonight.

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**Alright, you can ask questions again. Two more OC's are gonna make an appearance for the next show, so be sure to have some questions for them as well. Those who read V is for Victory should know Lucas. Those who don't know Natasha, read her bio on my profile.**


	5. Day 3: Preparation

**Fifth chapter of Ask the Characters. If no-one has caught onto it yet, there will be a 'preparation' part, followed by the 'show' part. The first part is to mainly show which OC's will be in for the show, while the second will answer the questions.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or any major company brands or series. I only own the story and my OC's.**

-0-

_**Day 3: Preparation**_

Sword was sitting at a drawing table of sorts writing on some kind of blueprint. He also had a couple patches with a coffee symbol on him as well. He was planning on expanding the studio, mainly due to popularity his show was getting, but also because of it being a little crowded for his standards. He was making sure that he had everything for the new studio: expanded rooms for his characters, a slightly larger kitchen, larger stage and more audience seats, etc, etc. The stage area would also have a glass dome, allowing plenty of natural light and see the sky clearly.

He also wrote a list of potential themes for his show in the future. They were all mainly about places in games he played over his life, and he decided to one day put that plan into action. He would, however, need the opinion of his fans in order to fully decide if he should do it or not.

There were also going to be two more of his characters coming as well; the 1800's kid-turned-Victini, Lucas, along with high-ranking G.E.N.E. Officer and top-of-the-world sniper, Natasha Cova. As well as the other three returning as well. Not only that, but he would also have a guest star as well.

Boy, was he going to have an interesting show tonight…

-0-

Marcus was walking down the road leading to Sword's studio while holding a small creature, with Aleron following shortly behind. The creature was a Victini, who happens to be Lucas, another transformed OC. Both he and Marcus were having a quiet talk, mainly about Sword and his show. Marcus was having to explain things to Lucas so he wouldn't be so scared about it. Lucas kept looking behind Marcus towards Aleron, much to the latter's annoyance.

"**Ugh, Lucas. Can you please stop being paranoid around me?**" Al said, annoyed on the kids glances. "**I mean, sure, I look intimidating, but I can't exactly help it due to me looking like this.**"

"Sorry, but monsters scare me so much." Lucas replied, shrinking into Marcus' arms. A vein popped on Al's head, he HATED being called a monster due to his looks.

"Al, give it a rest." Marcus said before his friend could go into a rant. "Lucas is just a child, of course he has a reason to be paranoid."

As they approached the doors to the studio, Sword was standing outside, along with Teresa in her human form. Both were talking about something, so the trio approached them.

"…studio has been expanded to not only allow more people to come, but also to give you guys more room." they heard Sword tell Teresa.

"What's this about the studio being expanded?" Marcus asked.

"Ah, Marcus, Aleron, Lucas," Sword addressed the trio, though Lucas shrunk a bit in Marcus' arms. "glad that you three were able to show up. Yes, the studio has been expanded and I was going to show Teresa the improvements. Hmm…" Sword looked among the group. "Seems that we're short one person."

"Huh?" Everyone asked.

"There was Natasha, another character that I invited, but it seems like she'll be a little late." Sword explained to the others.

Sword then motioned for the group to come inside. The entrance was almost like a movie theaters; A counter where audience members can get things to drink, along with some snacks. There was also a few TV sets that people who couldn't get in could watch. Moving on with the tour, Sword pushed open a set of double door leading to the stage, which was almost double the size and the ceiling was nearly two stories up. A large, clear dome was in the center of the ceiling, allowing plenty of sunlight in. Teresa was awe-struck by the sight, as well as Lucas. Sword then brought them backstage, going to show them their newly improved rooms.

**-1 hour later-**

After the tour was finished, Sword dismissed the group. They each left for their rooms, going to prepare for the show. Around this time, the camera crew were getting ready as well, tuning the new cameras for the show. He walked outside and seen a line of people buying tickets for the show as well, proving that his studio was popular. He didn't, however, notice someone in a brown trench coat carrying a suitcase heading down one of the buildings alleyways.

-0-

'_This is too easy…_' Natasha thought. She was able to sneak past the crowd and into the alley without being noticed. Even Sword didn't notice her. Walking down the alley, she was looking for a ladder or fire-escape to use to get to the top of the building. The suitcase she was carrying had her sniper rifle in it, though in pieces to conceal it. She spotted a ladder leading to the roof not too far away. Tucking the sniper's case under her arm, she started climbing the ladder to get into position.

After reaching the top, she put the suitcase down and opened it. Inside were the pieces to her rifle, a Dragunov sniper rifle, with a few modifications as well. She started pulling the pieces out carefully, then started to reassemble her rifle. A few minutes later, her rifle was completely put back together. She walked over to the dome of the roof and looked inside. No one was in it yet, and fortunately, the sun was in her favor, shining so that her shadow wouldn't be cast down to the floor below, away from the stage.

She reached for her belt and pulled out a small suction cup with a smaller knife attached to it. She attached it to a spot low to the roof on the dome and slowly and carefully carved a circle with it. When the circle was complete, she pulled it out and set it aside. She then got on her stomach and poked the barrel through the hole. It was wide enough so that not only the barrel would fit, but also that the scope wouldn't be thrown off.

"Now…to not only play the waiting game, but lets see if you really are as good as you say Sword." Natasha whispered to herself, letting a smile creep on her face.

-0-

Sword was picking through his closet on which shirt to wear for the show. He was tied for a top-half black fading into white at the bottom shirt with a bladed staff or a white with polka-dot black with dual katanas on it. He sighed and pulled a coin out.

"Head for the staff, tails for the katanas." he muttered, giving the coin a flick with his thumb. The coin spun in the air rapidly. When it reached its peak, gravity took hold and pulled it back down. Sword caught it with his right hand and slapped it on the back of his left.

"Tails, katanas it is then." he said, pulling his morning shirt off. Unbeknownst to him, a dot of light appeared in the middle of his room. The dot then started tracing a rectangle facing the same direction of Swords room door. When the shape was completed, an oak door appeared in it.

The door opened, revealing a girl in her early teens. She had shoulder-length dirty blonde hair with blonde highlights. Her eyes were blue with a mix of hazel with a ring of black around the iris and a ring of white around the pupil. Her fair skin had freckles around the nose, cheeks and shoulders. She was wearing a white t-shirt with fishnet undershirt, faded short shorts with fishnets that go just above the knee, platform Mary-Jane's, hair down with a jean baseball cap with a light blue 'A' stitched into the front.

She looked around the room she appeared in and closed the door. Unfortunately, the noise caught Swords attention. He turned his head and noticed the girl standing in his room. His eyes shot to the size of dinner plates upon realizing that someone came in without him knowing.

"WHAT THE HELL!" he yelled, jumping back. "HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?"

The girl jumped at the yelling and turned around. Upon seeing the shirtless Sword, she squeezed her eyes shut and her cheeks turned beet-red.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for Addie to drop me off in here!" she yelled as well.

Sword was about to scold the teen for intruding until she mentioned Addie.

"Wait, Addie? As in, Addie Marie Jones?" he asked.

"Y-yes, she said that I was able to come for the show today."

Sword was able to get his shirt on during her explanation. After hearing it, he just held his head in his hand.

"Ah, jeez. The invitation was meant for Addie." he muttered under his breath. He lifted his head out of his hand and looked back to the girl. "I didn't catch your name though. Mind telling me?" he asked calmly.

"Autumn." the girl, now Autumn, answered shyly.

"Wait, the same Autumn that I gave Marcus' phone number to?" Sword asked, a little surprised.

"Yeah, that's me." Autumn asked. "Marcus is here as well?" she asked right after.

"Yup. While I'm at it, might as well introduce you to the rest of the crew."

Sword walked past Autumn and opened the door. Both people walked out, with Autumn closing the door.

**-30 minutes later-**

Sword was able to introduce Autumn to everyone(the only exception was Marcus, who she already knew). It was interesting around both Aleron and Lucas, to say the least. By that, meaning that Autumn nearly wet herself when she saw Al and nearly gave Lucas a heart-attack. But all was forgiven and everyone was ready for the show. Sword lead them to the stage, where there were around a dozen or so seats. Marcus was holding Lucas as he found his seat, while Autumn sat next to them. Al stood up as always, finding it uncomfortable to sit due to his body. Teresa sat two seats away from Sword, while he sat in the one furthest from the door they came through.

Sword was still wondering where Natasha was, even though he sent her an invitation to the show tonight. He just shrugged it off and prepared for the show. Unknown to everyone, Natasha was there from the start, watching from the roof.

-0-

Natasha let her trademark smile come to her face. Sword was there, along with three other people and two creatures. They weren't worth anything to her, for Sword was the only thing that mattered. She plans to uphold her title by putting a bullet in Sword then leave the area. She leveled her gun and took dead-aim at Sword, who was addressing to cameramen to get into position.

-0-

Sword had a feeling that he was being watched by something other than the people before him and the crowd. He was about to shrug the feeling off until he saw a glint come from the roof out of the corner of his eye. He moved his eyes to see what it was, then he realized what it was. Smiling inwardly, he knew what that was.

'_Natasha, you know how to make an entrance…_' he thought with him readying for what was coming.

Sword decided to not show signs that he was aware of her location, and went back to starting the show.

"We are live in 5…4…3…2…" called out a cameraman.

**-Showtime-**

"Welcome back everyone to another episode of Ask the Characters. Plenty of questions last time, hopefully plenty more this time. I would also like to welcome a newcomer and guest star as well." A camera pans itself to face Lucas, who flinched at the device's movements.

"He may be a little scared of technology, but he still has a curious nature. Here's Lucas." Lucas waved a little before sinking back into Marcus' arms.

"Natasha was supposed to come by for today's show, but unfortunately, she was unable to show up today." Sword said, putting up the act of her absence. Sword then points to Autumn and the camera pans to her as well.

"She has requested to come to today's show and here she is. Autumn everyone!" Autumn waved as well.

Sword then stomped his right foot. A piece of the floor next to his chair slid open and the Review box shot out of it. He was able to catch the box while the floor slid back into place, but this was the perfect opportunity for Natasha to fire. She started to squeeze the trigger, but Sword was able to sense it. Time slowed to a crawl as the trigger was fully pulled back. The mechanisms of the rifle kicked in and fired a bullet in the clip. Said bullet flew out of the barrel and towards Sword.

He, like greased lightning, grabbed one of his katanas and yanked it out. He positioned it, blade pointing downwards, so that the blade would cut the bullet clean in half and where the halves would just pass harmlessly by him.

The bullet connected and was sliced down the middle of it. Both halves zipped just centimeters past either side of Swords head. The bullets halves slammed into the floor, leaving bullet holes where they impacted the wooden floor.

Time went back to normal and everyone did panicked gasps at what happened. Lucas jumped and was shaking like crazy while Marcus tried to calm him down. Aleron started charging his cannon and was frantically looking around for the shooter. Teresa was surprised by the gun-shot and ended up losing her focus. She turned back into her Zorua form and was looking around as well. Autumn had a near heart-attack because one of the bullets halves hit the floor a few feet away from her. Natasha was shocked that someone not only survived, but was able to defend themselves from a bullet, even more so with a sword cutting it clean in half. Sword returned the blade to its place then looked up to where Natasha was. He smiled, knowing that he was able to best her.

"Alright Natasha, come on down." he called out loudly.

All eyes and cameras were on the spot Sword was looking at. Natasha was sweating bullets, thinking that she was going to be killed for her actions. Aleron focused on her and started charging his cannon, readying himself to fire. Sword, however, just put one of his hand in front of him, telling him to stand down. Sword reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a small remote. He pointed it towards the dome and pressed a button on it. Said dome started to rise, much to Natasha's surprise.

Deciding that it would be futile to run, she slung her rifle over her back, grabbed the rifles case, then jumped down. She landed gracefully in the central lane, grunting a little from the fall. She then started to walk towards the stage while everyone was being silent. Her shoes echoing loudly on the wooden stage as she took a seat that was two seats away from Autumn and Marcus after putting the suitcase next to it.

After she was seated, Sword cleared his throat to continue with the show.

"Right. And here's Natasha Cova, top-of-the-world sniper and hit(wo)man as well." he introduced.

He then took out the box's key and opened. it.

-0-

**Heh, quite the intro for Natasha huh? Anyway, there is a poll that will decide if I should do themes for this. If, for some reason, you can't vote, PM your vote and I'll add it to those who have voted.**


	6. Episode 3

**Sixth chapter (3rd show) of Ask the Characters. My Beta, Nano, said that this is breaking the sites rules and stuff like this is grounds for removal, but think about it. There are dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of those Truth or Dare (ToD) and other questionnaire fics on this site. If those have been around since the start of this site, why would mine be any different? I will, however, have mini-plots throughout this fic, starting hopefully at the end of this chapter and more along the way.**

**I got nothing special to say for this part.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, or any major company brands. I own only the story and the OC's. Autumn is an OC from Addie Marie Jones (Now known as Emo Princess Addie).**

-0-

_**Ask the Characters**_

_**Chapter 6: Day 3: Showtime!**_

Sword opened the box and there were a few strips of paper inside. He picked on up and was about to read them aloud, but didn't after reading what was on it. He kept reading what was on it, getting a bored look on his face the more he read. After reading the list, he lifted his head up and breathed an agitated sigh.

"Okay, before we start," he began. "I would like to say that, this is _not_ one of those Truth or Dare shows. I have hopes that this will not become one of those, lest this show just becomes nothing." He let out a long breath, then lowered his head back down.

"Well…let us continue shall we? This batch is from Ryu Dragonclaw."

_If a Lugia blasted through the ceiling and started shooting Areoblasts everywhere, what would you do?_

"Simple, I would just shoot a tranquilizer at it and see who would be the highest bidder." Natasha casually said.

"I would catch it with a Master ball, then send it back on its way so that way it won't be captured by other trainers." Sword replied.

_If you had to be creamed by a legendary, and had to choose, which one?_

"Jirachi." Sword, Marcus, Teresa and Aleron answered quickly. Lucas was confused on who Jirachi is.

"Darkrai, just for a bit of a challenge." Natasha said, cracking her knuckles a little.

_If a Celebi lets you time-travel, what in your past would you change?_

"I would make sure that my reputation as top sniper is rock-solid." Natasha answered.

"I would make sure that my grandma got the proper healthcare in a responsible hospital." Sword sadly said.

"I would train with some monks in the ancient times." Marcus said.

"Okay, next batch is from Addie Marie Jones, now known as Emo Princess Addie." Sword called out, fishing out a longer list.

_Sword and Natasha_

_Grab Marcus and Autumn with an iron grip and throw them into a closet. Sword, let her do anything she wants for today's show._

Sword and Natasha exchanged glances, then let evil grins show on their faces. They then looked towards Marcus and Autumn, who flinched from the looks.

"Uh, Sword? Why are you and Natasha looking at us like that?" Marcus asked nervously. Autumn was sweating a little from the stares as well.

Like greased lightning, both Sword and Natasha grabbed Marcus and Autumn's arms respectively, causing both of them to jump in surprise. They were both yanked out of their seats (with Lucas falling to the floor, and having swirls in his eyes upon landing) and hauled to a nearby janitors closest, which Sword opened quickly and threw Marcus inside. Before Natasha could throw Autumn in, however, Sword stopped her.

"Why are you stopping me?" Natasha demanded, barely keeping her grip on Autumn.

"I would like to give her something before putting her in." Sword answered. He reached for a pouch on the middle of his right leg and opened it. He reached in and pulled out half a dozen squares of paper with a coffee icon on them.

Natasha arced an eyebrow to the slips, questioning on what they are. Before she could ask though, Sword slapped one on both sides of Autumns neck, one per arm and leg.

"Don't just stand there, put her in quick!" he ordered. Natasha quickly complied by shoving Autumn inside, who has strangely stopped struggling, although she had bug eyes. Sword slammed the door shut and drew both of his katanas out. He spun them around and stuck them in opposite corners, covering the door and effectively blocking it.

"Now, might I ask why the patches and urgency?" Natasha asked.

Instead of responding, Sword just snapped his fingers and a TV appeared on the wall. It turned on and shown the inside of the closet.

"Just watch." he simply said.

Inside, Marcus was slowly picking himself up off the floor, muttering under his breath as he went. He looked over at Autumn, who was twitching for some reason.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, growing concerned.

Autumn didn't answer, making Marcus grow even more concerned about her. He picked himself up completely, reached out for her. Before he could grab her shoulder, she spun around so fast that she became a blur. When he saw her face, he nearly screamed. Instead of the calm look she had before being locked in, she had a wicked grin on her face, and one of her eyes was larger than the other, giving the look of an insane person.

"COME HERE, LOVER-BOY!" she screeched, lunging at him.

Marcus cowered in the corner, very much afraid of the calm-then-suddenly-turned-insane girl before him. He brought his hands up to shield his face, a futile attempt to protect himself. A cloud of dust was thrown up when Autumn tackled him, effectively block the view of the camera.

Everyone, including Sword and Natasha, were staring wide-eyed and jaw-dropped at what happened. Marcus' screams were heard, along with the sound of loud kisses and Autumn yelling unintelligible words. Sword quickly shut the TV off, not wanting to permanently scar people. Teresa was back in her human form, although was sitting on the seat furthest from Natasha and holding Lucas, the latter being very scared of Autumn now.

"Oh-ho-Kay…I think I put too many coffee patches on her…" Sword hesitantly muttered, scared on the hyper-demon now. "Anyway, moving on…"

_Sword and Natasha as well._

_See how long you can last in a wrestling match against each other._

Swords eyes grew wide with this. _'Is she SERIOUS?'_ he yelled in his mind, not believing the ridiculous dare. Natasha just grinned, cracking her knuckles for the seemingly one-sided fight.

"Well then, let us see who is better in hand-to-hand combat then." She said with an evil-looking grin.

"H-hey now," Sword stuttered, slowly backing away. "I don't exactly w-want to fight women."

"Come now Sword. You were able to slice a bullet in half, but you can't handle yourself in hand-to-hand against me?" Natasha pointed out with a fake-sweet voice, cracking her knuckles to further intimidate Sword.

Sword was sweating bullets, trying to think up on how to avoid being mauled by Natasha. He snapped his gaze towards the remaining characters.

"AleronTeresaLucasyou'reinchargeoftheshowfornowBYE!" Sword yelled quickly before bolting towards one of the stage exits, Natasha giving chase after.

The mentioned trio were a little dumbfounded on the sudden events. Teresa was first to regain her senses.

"Well then…let us continue shall we?"

_Aleron_

_Wear a fedora and insist that it's magical and will have chicken wings appear when you take it off._

"**Uh…What?**" Aleron asked, completely confused on the dare. Seeing Aleron's confusion, Teresa just skipped ahead to the next one.

_Lucas_

_Can I hug you PWEASE?_

"I uh…guess so. If only you were here though." Lucas shyly said.

_Walk up to the camera and touch it for 10 seconds._

"I don't want Sword mad at me for touching some of his stuff…"

_Teresa_

_Can I hug you in your Zorua form PWEASE?_

"Only if you're here, and by god not Autumn since she's gone crazy for some reason…" Teresa trailed off, looking at the closet, sealed with the swords in place, the door shaking due to the deranged Autumn.

_Aleron and Teresa_

_I dare ya both to kiss._

Teresa's eyes shot to dinner-plate size. Both dared people turned to face each other, not believing the ridiculous dare.

"OH (**OH**) HELL (**HELL**) NO (**NO**)!" They yelled at the same time.

"Um, I'm guessing that I can read a few of them then…" Lucas said, looking at a small scrap of paper. "If I'm reading this right, this next one is from…um…Mirandafan21?"

_Hey, is Team Rocket in this?_

"Sorry, but those losers are _not_ coming. Even Sword would say so." Teresa, after getting over the disgust of the dare, answered.

"**Right, last few are from Gameguy12, and both seem to be for me.**" Aleron said, looking at the last list.

_Aleron_

_What did you transform into?_

"**A Genesect. Google it if you don't know what it is.**"

_What was it like transforming?_

"**How would I know? Ask Marcus, since I was out cold during that time.**" Aleron shrugged.

"Well, that seems to be all of the questions." Teresa announced. "I'm Teresa Yuna…"

"Lucas Alexander…"

"**Aleron Bane.**"

One of the doors to the stage splintered and flying through it was Sword, although bruised and beaten, and landed roughly on the stage floor. Natasha – who didn't have a scratch – calmly walked through, stepping around the larger chunks of the doors remains. When she got to the downed Sword, she put her foot on his stomach and leaned downwards.

"I…win." She calmly said. She then turned to face the camera for the final moments of the show. "Natasha Cova."

"_Sword…_" Sword was able to weakly say.

Sword then weakly raised his right hand, prepping his fingers to snap. When he snapped, the katanas holding the closet door shut flew out of their spots and back onto Swords shirt. Not a second after, the door was knocked off its hinges and smacked into the floor. The crazed Autumn jumped out, eyes still bugged out due to the coffee patches, with Marcus huddled on the floor in the room.

"AUTUMN ARCANINE!" she screeched.

"M-M-Marcus-s-s Fl-Flint-t-t." Marcus stuttered weakly.

Sword snapped his fingers a second time and the coffee patches attached to Autumn vanished. When they did, Autumn froze on her spot, her arms held above her head, still bearing the psychotic grin. After a few seconds, she fell face first onto the floor, and started snoring loudly.

"Heh…very sharp downside…of those things." Sword said with a grin. He looked back up to Natasha. "Hey, Natasha?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you reach into…the upper middle pouch on…the left leg…please?" he asked.

Arcing an eyebrow, Natasha reached for said pouch, opening it and fishing out a vial with a green fluid.

"Mind telling me what this stuff is?" she questioned.

"Doesn't matter, now pour a drop of that stuff into my mouth."

Doing as instructed, Natasha pulled the cork off and tipped the vial. A single drop fell from it, landing in Swords mouth. He swallowed the drop and relaxed, closing his eyes for a few seconds. Everyone was caught off-guard when all the bruises and cuts started to heal before their eyes. Natasha even took a few steps back, just in time as Sword flipped himself back onto his feet. He whipped around to face the camera.

"This has been Ask the Characters. Good night!" he announced with a grin.

"And we're out." a cameraman called out.

Aleron ran to Marcus' side, helping him up, although he was shaking like crazy and had kiss marks all over his face.

"**Marcus, you alright?**" he asked.

Marcus shook Aleron off and marched right towards Sword. The latter turned to face him and was roughly grabbed by the shirt's shoulders.

"Sword, don't you _EVER_ do that to me _again!_" Marcus hissed.

Sword, caught off-guard, simply blinked, then held up his hands in a surrendering pose.

"Alright alright, I won't do it again, I'll make sure of it." Sword said. "Oh, and by the way…" he lightly snapped his hand and a moist napkin appeared in his hand. "You might want to wash up a bit." he offered the napkin to Marcus, who took it and started wiping the lipstick off.

Natasha was still holding the vial of miracle medicine, eying it and seeing on how much it would be worth on the black market. Sword noticed the looks and snatched the vial away, causing Natasha to jump.

"Sorry, Nat, but this stuff works on me only." Sword said, tucking the vial away. "Anyone else will only taste lime."

Shot down on a potential money-bank deal, Natasha left the stage, first disassembling her rifle and fitting it back into its case, grumbling as well. Teresa left as well, while holding Lucas. Aleron and Marcus followed shortly after.

Sword walked over towards Autumn, who was still snoring, and picked her up bridal-style. He snapped his fingers and the same light that made the door Autumn came through appeared, and traced the door. After it was done, the door itself appeared and opened. Sword walked through and placed Autumn in a chair that was in the room, then walked back out. After closing the door, it vanished along with the light as well.

He then proceeded to his room to turn in for the night, but stopped when he saw a package propped up against the door. It was in wave-patterned black and white, with white ribbons and a black card attached. Curious on how it was able to get here without him knowing, he looked at the card. It was addressed to to him, but no other name was on it. He picked it up and noticed that it was heavier than it looked. Curiosity peaked, he opened the door and walked into his room, closing the door after.

He set the box on his couch and started undoing the ribbons and paper. After it was all clear, he lifted the box and nearly dropped it back down in awe. Laying in the box was a longsword that had black and white swirling patterns as they travel up the blade. The guard of it was circular and had white on one half and black on the other. The hilt of the sword was half black and white as well, but with the white next to the blade guard and the black on the bottom.

Lifting the sword out of its box, Sword looked the blade over, taking in all the details of it. He took a hold of the hilt and noticed that it fit perfectly into his hands. He took a test swing and noticed that it would take both hands to swing it correctly, but eventually, when he got used to it, he would only use one.

Deciding to swing it one more time, he brought it over his head, right hand on the white half of the hilt and left on the black, and swung down hard. He stopped it when the blade it was level with his mid-body. However, when he did, he felt the sword suddenly shift from the stop. He heard the sound of glass breaking and looked down. In his hands were not one, but two swords, one pure white with a black blade guard, and one pure black with a white blade guard.

He stared at both with wide and excited eyes, not believing he got a two-for-one gift. He was about to put them on a blank shirt for safe-keeping until he felt something tugging not only at his body, but his mind as well. The feelings intensified rapidly, getting more painful as it continued, Sword dropped to his knees, somehow unable to let go of the swords. When the pain peaked, he felt his mind, body, and soul literally split.

If someone else was witnessing the event, they would see him flickering like a glitch on a TV set. He was enveloped in a harsh, bright light. When the light faded, in his place were two people dressed almost alike, although one pure black and one pure white, face down on the floor, both unconscious. In the white ones hand was the white sword in his right hand, while the other had the black one in his left.

-0-

**Hey-o, something happened to me! Seems like That sword was something else after all. Not only that, but there are doubles of me.**

**Anyway, this part too _way_ too long for me to write. Don't worry, I won't forget about my other stories as well. I had a lot of writers block for them, but little by little, its going away, so hopefully, I can update more frequently.**

**As always, leave your questions in the reviews and I'll see ya next time. Oh, and one more thing; a theme will be happening next show, so you get to see what happens to the crew.**


	7. Day 4: Preparation

**Chapter 7 of Ask the Characters. Two new characters at the end, and they will shine during the next few chapters. Afterward, they will make appearances every so often. I will have the occasional song listed to play for moments as well.**

**Lets go.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or any major company brands. I own only the story and OC's. Emo Princess Addie belongs to herself. Any OC's other than mine belong to their respective owners..**

-0-

_Ask the Characters_

_Chapter 7: Day 4: Preparation_

The sun rose as normal, waking up the world wherever the light went. When it shone into Swords room though, instead of him grunting, there was silence. In fact, he wasn't in bed at all, nor did the bed show signs of him being in it last night. Instead, there were two people in his room, on the floor in front of the couch. Both were identical in body, but clothing and skin, not so much. One had pure white clothing, pale skin and a white sword in his right hand. The other had jet black clothing, dark skin, and a black sword in his left hand.

The bright-colored one was first to wake, moaning as the pain from last night came rushing back. He let got of his sword and clutched his head, trying to stem the pain. He had a black dot on the center of his forehead. After the pain subsided, he looked to his right and remembered the sword he was given as well. Grabbing the sword, he lifted himself up and noticed a weight on his back. Turning his head around, he noticed a sheath, white as his clothing, strapped to his back. He brought the sword to the opening and noticed that it slid in easily, giving a small click when in completely.

Upon sheathing his sword, he looked around, not exactly noticing the double on the ground, and noticed the computer. It had an envelope icon flashing on it, meaning he had mail. Walking over to it, he sat down and clicked on the icon. On it was an invitation request from Emo Princess Addie, wanting to come to tonight's show. He smiled and accepted the invitation, then remembered the theme that was going to happen as well. Typing the notice, he sent the email and waited for a response. He got one a few minutes later, telling him that Addie, initially confused on what would happen, told him on what she wanted to be. Smiling, he shut the computer off for the time and was about to get up until he heard someone groaning behind him.

The one in black was able to wake up at this time and moaned because of the painful separation last night. Of course he, and the one in white, were unaware of it or their double until the black one moaned.

"Ugh, did anyone get the license plate number of that truck?" he mumbled.

Letting go of his sword, he clutched his head, although with his fingers digging in a bit into his head. He let go and was about to grab his sword until someone yelled close to him.

"WHAT THE HECK? HOW'D YOU GET IN HERE?"

**[Naruto OST – Fooling Mode]**

His eyes widened, then he leaped to his feet, holding his sword in his left hand, blade running along his arm. He eyed the screamer, noticing the white colored clothing and black dot on his head. Said person drew his sword, although with his right hand and held it like a traditional swordsman.

"Who are you?" they demanded at the same time. They reeled back a bit at the simultaneous questions.

"Why do you look like me?" they demanded at the same time again. Same results, but with a vein popping on the black one.

"QUIT COPYING ME!" Same time, same results, another vein popping along with one on the white one as well.

"Okay, who are you and why do you look like me?" The one in white finally asked without getting in the talk-at-the-same-time mess.

"I look like you? You look like me, except you look like someone shoved a light bulb up your ass and turned it on!" the one in black fired.

"And you look like the sun decided to make you look extra crispy, Blacky!"

"What was that White-out?" A third vein popped on the blacks head.

"As much as I want to avoid fighting, but you calling me, Sword, a 'White-out', you got a fight."

"Yeah, that you- wait…" the black one started, but stopped when Sword was mentioned. "What was your name?" he asked after, lowering his sword.

"Sword, now what's yours?" 'Sword' said, keeping his blade raised.

"That can't be right, my name is Sword as well." 'Sword' answered, confused now.

"Huh? Did something hit your head? There can't be two Swords. Unless…" 'Sword' said, trailing off while looking at his blade. The other 'Sword' looked at his blade as well.

"Wait," the white 'Sword' started "if we look alike…"

"…And we have the same looking swords…" the black 'Sword' added.

"…and we have the same name…"

"…does that mean…"

"…we have the same memories?" the white 'Sword' finished.

Both of them looked through their memories of last night, the show, the package, the blade and…and…

Realization dawned upon them when it came to the dual blades prior to the blacking out. Their eyes bugged out, looked at each other, letting it sink in, then yelled at the top of their lungs.

"I'VE BEEN LITERALLY SPILT INTO HALVES!" They both screamed at the same time. A few birds flew off surprised by the noise.

The white Sword was panicking while the black Sword was pissed at whoever sent the sword.

"Oh man, how am I…uh, how are we…going to do the show now?" the white Sword panicked, sweating bullets as well.

"What I want to know is who sent the sword that made me, uh…us…like this!" the black Sword growled, a little confused at the last part. "Man, this whole 'split' thing's gonna take some getting used to…" he muttered.

They didn't, however, notice the familiar orb of light tracing a door next to the computer. After said door was complete, a female teen stepped out. She looked almost like Autumn, but a little taller and with blond highlights in her hair, along with freckles on her nose. A bright, blue-colored shirt with a Pichu was her top while she had jean shorts, along with converse shoes that went to her kneecaps. The door closed behind her, and it was enough to catch both Swords' attention. They both turned to face the newcomer, who was looking between the both of them.

"Hi." she said simply.

"Uhm…hi?" the white Sword responded, wondering who she was.

"Is Sword around? He allowed me to come for the show tonight." the teen explained.

"You're looking at him." Both Swords answered.

"Huh?" the teen asked, confused on the answer she got. "There can't be two Swords. Besides, the one I know wears a mix of both of what you two are wearing."

"Believe it toots, we're Sword, even if it doesn't look like it." the black Sword mockingly said.

"Hey!" she protested.

"Be nice to our guest!" the white Sword snapped. "So, you're Addie?" he kindly asked.

"How do you know me?" Addie questioned, wanting to run back through the door.

"I'm the one that said you can be able to come."

"You are? Prove it." Addie challenged, crossing her arms and waiting for the proof.

"Autumn Arcanine, a character of yours, was invited to yesterdays show. She ended up taking a dare from you to her and Marcus to be locked in a closet. However, at the last second, I ended up slapping half a dozen coffee patches on her, making her go berserk from the caffeine and scarring Marcus for life. After the show ended, the patches were removed and thus, knocking her out. That enough proof?" the white Sword finished calmly.

Addie just stood there, baffled on the detail on Autumns stay yesterday.

"Yeah, I uh…I think that's good enough." she was able to say. She then turned her gaze to the other Sword. "And what about you?"

"Same story, I remember everything about her stay as well." he simply answered.

**[End of song]**

All three of them sat in silence, trying to take in the situation that was happening. The white Sword happened to glance between both his and his copys swords, noticing something.

"Hey, Black?" he asked calmly.

"Hmph, calling me by color now?" 'Black' asked rudely. "Anyway, what do you want?"

"I remember that the guard of the 'whole' blade was a mix of both our colors." 'White' pointed out, emphasizing the word 'whole'. "If I'm remembering correctly, it was in the pattern of the spiritual Yin and Yang symbol, correct?"

'Black' closed his eyes for a second, looking back on his set of memories. He looked back to the blade prior to the blacking out, and got a good look at the blade guard.

"Yeah, it is. Your point?"

"Well, we can't keep calling ourselves by color, so how about a name change?"

"What, you want to call yourself Yin and me Yang?" 'Black' scoffed, disliking the idea.

"It seems reasonable…" Addie commented.

"See? Even Addie agrees." 'Yin' said.

"…" 'Yang' closed his eyes, deep in thought. After a few seconds, he let out a sigh and opened his eyes again. "Fine, Yang it is."

"Glad to hear you'll accept it." Yin happily said.

"Whatever…" Yang grunted.

"Well then, now that that's out of the way, my name's Addie, full name is Emo Princess Addie." Addie re-introduced.

"Since we both have a name now, Yin Sword." Yin introduced.

"Yang Sword…" Yang said.

Before they could walk out the rooms door, the computer turned itself on. The e-mail icon was flashing, meaning some new mail. Since Yin was closest, he checked it first, Yang and Addie behind him. One of them was anther quest-star request from Ryu Dragonclaw, the other was a reminder for a theme today.

Yin was a little surprised of a second guest-star request for the show today, but sent the form to be filled out. Besides, the more the merrier. Shutting the computer off again, he got up and started to talk with Yang about the theme.

"So, do you want to go through with it?" Yin asked "I already have which forms we can be."

"You mean look like the Vast White and Deep Black dragons?" Yang questioned.

"Yep, but instead of turning fully into them, we can bend the rule a little and become anthros, half and half."

"What about me?" Addie asked.

"Don't worry, we can do that to you as well." Yin reassured. He turned back to face Yang.

"You ready?"

"Yeah, lets do it."

They both high-fived, making a blinding light afterward.

-0-

Teresa, along with Aleron, Marcus, and Lucas – who was being held by Teresa – were traveling down the path to Swords' studio, chatting about things happening along the way. They all arrived at the studio to find Natasha waiting for them by the entrance, without her rifle case. Lucas shrank a little into Teresa's arms as the group approached. Natasha noticed them and looked a little annoyed.

"Great, and here comes the riff-raff…" she muttered.

Marcus went to open the door, but Natasha stopped him.

"Don't bother, the doors are locked for some reason. Even with my skills, I couldn't get them open. Even tried going to the roof, but its dome is 'blacked out', locked, and the glass made unbreakable."

"Huh, that's unlike Sword. Wonder whats happening…" Teresa said, leaning up against one of the doors. There was a click as she fully propped against it and the door swung open, making yelp out in surprise and fall flat on her back, with Lucas flying out of her arms. Teresa lost her focus and turned back into her Zorua form, lying on her back. Lucas landed a few feet away from her on his stomach in the lobby, which had the lights off for some reason.

Lucas moaned as he picked himself up, but froze when he heard heavy footsteps. They were getting louder, which meant whoever or whatever is getting closer to him, and he was frightened for what could be further in. The sound stopped as a black hoof-like foot stomped in front of him and he heard some heavy breathing. Shaking now, he looked up and his eyes shrunk with fright. Staring right at him were a pair of glowing red eyes with yellow irises. Shortly after looking at them, the creature grinned, its teeth visible despite the lack of light.

That sealed the deal with Lucas, for he screamed, jumped, and ran back to the group, tears flowing along the way. Marcus and Aleron heard the screaming and bolted in through the doors, readying themselves for a fight. Even Natasha showed up, holding a combat knife. Lucas ran to Teresa, who was just now flipping herself over and onto her feet, and buried his face into her fur, soaking it with his tears.

"Lucas, what is it?" Teresa asked, trying to calm him down.

He didn't answer as a booming laugh echoed through the room.

"Ahaha, man Lucas, you are such a chicken! You should have seen the look on your face." the voice bellowed, it extremely familiar to the group. Everyone had shocked looks on their faces.

"SWORD?" everyone except Lucas yelled.

"Bingo." the voice answered. The lights cut on, effectively blinding everyone for a few seconds. After their eyes adjusted, they got a look at 'Sword', and started having doubts it was him.

Standing in the middle of the room, with its arms crossed and a smug grin, was a humanoid dragon, almost as black as night itself. Its feet were had three 'toes', with a spike on the back of the heels. The legs were fairly muscular, with a gray/black tone to them, with a bit of a shine to them, giving the looks of natural armor. The arms were humanoid as well, except the hands were almost like wings. When the being unfolded its arms, its hands, four black claws, were actually underneath the wings-like parts. Parts of its torso had darker shades of black on them, the parts black as darkness. It was difficult to see due to the coloring, but there was a strap running diagonally across its chest, upper left to the lower right.

Attached to its lower back was what looked like a turbine, spikes jutting off it in places. Close to its shoulder blades were a pair of wings, similar in pattern to those covering its hands. Its head was shaped almost like that of a dragon the creature was resembling. The noticeable difference were the spikes on both sides of its head, presumably the 'ears' of it and spikes on the back of the head, almost like hair.

"Like my new look guys?" 'Sword' asked in a fake-calm tone, maintaining the grin on his face.

Natasha saw through the tone, and gripped her knife with a deadly look in her eyes.

"Who are you, and where's the real Sword?" she demanded, venom clear in her tone. Aleron and Marcus both took a few steps away from her, not wanting to evoke her wrath.

'Sword' just closed his eyes and shook his head back and forth slowly.

"Natasha, come now. Do you really think you can win?" he challenged.

"Do you want me to prove that theory?" she hissed, trying with all her might to prevent herself from lunging at the monster before her.

"Actually yes," he shifted his right leg in front and reared his left hand back, claws pointed out. "yes I do."

Before either of them could lunge, another voice boomed out.

"YANG! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" it demanded. Everyone except 'Yang' jumped at the sound of it. Almost immediately, 'Yang' relaxed from his pose and had a disappointed look on his face. Everyone turned to face the direction the voice came from and seen two new beings coming through a doorway.

The one on the left was humanoid as well, but with bright white fur over its entire body. Its feet were somewhat similar, except the 'toes' were more claw-like in appearance and silver in color, same for the one at the back of the heel. The legs were similar as well, but with an extra strip of fur running down the middle. The front torso's fur was similarly patterned like the other, but no different shades of color were visible. Like the other, attached to the lower back was a tail, but unlike the turbine on the black human-dragon, this one had what looked like a group of clouds surrounded by a duo of rings. A strap was barely visible running from the upper right to the lower left part of the chest area. The arms had a blanket of fur flowing behind them, almost making the arms wing-like. The hand had a strip of metal running across the center, with the four 'fingers' as metallic claws. The head was like a dragon, with a couple rings around the neck, along with the snout of one as well. A long trail of snow-white hair flowed behind its head. The sky-blue eyes showed fury for Yang.

The other being was another humanoid, but instead of being like a dragon, it was almost like that of a fairy. She had a pair of grass-green antennae sticking out the top of her head, with the tips being blue. Its head was teardrop shaped, with the tip a darker shade of green then the rest of its light green colored head. Rings of black surrounded its eyes, which were a water blue color. A pair of wings were on its back, showing that it could fly when needed. The torso was the same light green at the upper half, but grass-green the rest, along with the legs. The arms were light green as well, with four digit hands too. The feet were shaped like ovals, but were wide enough to allow movement on the ground.

The white dragon marched towards the black dragon he called 'Yang' and started to scold him.

"Just what the hell were you doing just now Yang?" it demanded, fury evident on its face.

"Oh nothing Yin, just giving the group a warm welcome…" Yang answered.

"A 'warm welcome'? You nearly started a fight with them, and knowing you, you would've probably killed them!" Yin yelled.

Yang just closed his eyes and chose to ignore the raving. When it was evident that he wasn't getting through, Yin just fumed, before calming down and walking towards the group. Natasha was still holding her knife, poised to strike if the anthro dragon got too close.

"Whoa, easy Natasha, easy." it said, raising its arms up in a surrendering position.

"Who are you and how do you know me?" she demanded, not letting her sight off both potential threats.

"Its me, Sword." Everyone except Yang and the fairy arced an eyebrow to the answer, thinking that the dragon hit its head. "It's…complicated, I know. Just…" he looked over the entire group. "Follow me to the stage, I'll try and explain along the way."

Natasha, still wary of the dragon, still held her knife, ready to strike if the following turned into a trap. Lucas was able to let go of Teresa, who then turned back into her human form and picked him up and held him. Aleron and Marcus looked between each other, then decided to follow. Yang and the fairy looked between each other, then followed the rest.

Walking down the halls, Yin was able to start.

"Okay, since you're all wondering as for why that my name is Sword and so was his, let me say that both he and I are the same person."

"**Wait, how can that be?**" Aleron asked, confused on the last part.

"Well, yesterday when I sent you guys home for the night, I returned to my room, only to find a package propped up against my door. When I brought it in and opened it, there was a sword laying in it. It looks much like this." Yin reached over his right shoulder and grabbed a handle that was camouflaged due to the coloring of it, and pulled on it. A pure white blade came out and made Natasha uneasy. Fortunately, he didn't pull the blade all the way out, only stopping halfway.

"See, the blade looks like this, except it was a mixture of both black and white." He slid the sword back down into its sheath, easing the tension in the air. "However, when I was testing the sword out, it 'split', so to say, into the blades both me and Yang carry."

"Wait, it split? And who's Yang?" Teresa asked.

"That would be me toots." Yang rudely answered, letting a small grin show.

"ANYWAY," Yin yelled before another fight could start. "yes, the blade did split, but not into a single edged blade. I mean into two full copies of it. I carry the 'yin' half and Yang has the other half."

"Wait, why did you call your blade Yin since your name is that?" Marcus questioned.

"Its the name that I gave the 'full' sword, the Yin-Yang Blade. Neat huh?" Yin grinned a bit, but continued. "Besides the point, the reason that I named myself Yin is so that we, as in me and Yang, don't have to call ourselves Black and White, and as such, be branded as racists…" he finished, sweat-dropping a little.

"So wait, if I'm understanding this correctly, then how are you going to bring the real Sword back?" Lucas was able to ask.

"That, I don't know, but I am working on it. It would go a lot smoother if _someone_ could keep a check on their anger issues." he said, glancing back towards Yang, in which a vein popped on the latter's head.

"One more question." Natasha started. "Why do you both and her look like that?" she asked, pointing her thumb at the fairy.

"Ah, almost forgot. well, yesterday, I, back when I was whole, asked the fans if they wanted a theme. They voted for the Pokemon theme the most, and as such, is the reason that me, Yang, and Addie look like this."

"Addie?" Marcus asked.

"The fairy, or Celebi anthro, is Emo Princess Addie, or just Addie to make things simpler." Yin answered. Addie did a little wave to the group everyone turned to look at her.

"There's a catch though." Yang finally spoke. "The theme applies to everyone, meaning everyone that is part of the show becomes a Pokemon." a grin was starting to show on his face.

Natasha was about to question what he meant until she processed what he said. Her eyes grew a little upon realizing that she was to be transformed.

"Oh no, you are _not_ changing me into _anything_ at all!" she hissed.

Before another fight could start, the group felt a chill in the air. Everyone shivered a little, Yang and Addie a bit more, as snow was blowing around.

"Wait, how is there snow in the building?" Yang questioned.

"That, must be Ryu Dragonclaw coming." Yin answered.

"Ryu?" Addie asked.

"Another guest-star request. Seems like he, or she, likes snow quite a bit."

The snow started coming in greater numbers and started to circle in the middle of the hallway. The amount of snow got to be so thick, everyone couldn't see through the cloud. When it dispersed, a door made of ice was standing there. The door opened and a teenage girl stepped out. She was around the average young teen height with ice-blue hair. She was wearing winter clothing, a thick jacket and pants, along with a scarf wrapped around her face, leaving her eyes visible, all shades of blue. Her eyes were blue as well, and reflected the view of the snow flying around.

The door closed behind her and turned into snow, which blew away. The girl looked at the group, her eyes moving past each member. After a minute, she spoke in a cheery tone.

"Hey guys. Ryu sent me for the show tonight. Hope I'm not too late." she said, waving a little.

_'Great, a happy-go-lucky kid. Another annoyance.'_ Natasha thought bitterly.

"Hey kid, who are you?" Yang asked, slightly curious.

"Isolde, but you can call me Iso." Isolde answered.

"Well then, you joined at possibly the last second Iso. We were heading for the stage to start." Yin stated. "You are aware of the theme tonight right?"

"Mm-hm. Ryu told be before letting me come." Iso answered with a nod.

"And what would your form be?"

"A Glaceon."

"Glaceon huh? Good choice, just don't use any ice attacks on Yang." Yin warned. He lowered his head to Iso's ear. _"No really, don't, unless you have a death wish."_ he whispered.

"_Gotcha."_ Iso replied.

"Right then, on towards the stage." Yin called out. The group continued down the hall, ready for the show tonight.

-0-

**Cutting it here due to this going on a little longer than what I wanted. The temporary TF's will happen next chapter, and the show will continue.**


	8. What Pokemon Are You?

**Eighth chapter of Ask the Characters. Pretty good intro for Yin and Yang, along with their anthro forms as well, huh? Anyway, the first theme for this series comes into effect, in which everyone is a Pokemon. I'm gonna break from the pattern for this and show you what Marcus and Natasha become.**

**Yang: Hurry up will you? We're wasting time.**

**Yin: Yang, be patient, he's going.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or any major company brands. I own only the story and OC's. Addie belongs to Emo Princess Addie. Any OC's other than mine belong to their respective owners.**

-0-

_Ask the Characters_

_Chapter 8: What pokemon are you?_

Yin Sword, along with the rest of the group, proceeded down the hall towards the studio stage for the show. There was a bit of chatter as Iso was introducing herself to the rest of the crew. The reactions were as follow:

Aleron- "You look like some kind of robotic bug monster thing." Iso stated, unaware of the consequences. A vein pops on Alerons head upon him being called a monster.

"**Really? That I do.**" he asked a little ticked. Iso sweat-drops and starts backing away.

Marcus- "Are you really as strong as Superman?" Iso asked happily.

"Not really, though I can punch a hole straight through a concrete wall with my gauntlets on."

Teresa- "So you can change into what ever animal you want?" Iso asked. "That's so cool!"

"Yeah, but when I turn into human, this tail would be showing," she points to her tail "and if anyone were to grab it, it would turn me back into a Zorua."

Lucas- "Soooo…" Iso started, trying to think of what to ask.

"Ummm…" Lucas nervously said.

Natasha- "Are you in the army?" Iso asked.

"Go away pest, you're annoying me." Natasha said, a little annoyed.

Yang- _Yang used Death Glare._

_Iso is too scared to talk._

So, yeah, able to get along with a few of the members.

After a minute of walking, the group was able to arrive at the doors to the stage. Before Yin could open it though, he cleared his throat.

"Okay, everyone that's a pokemon, stand at one side. Those that aren't stand on the other. Yang, come over here."

All but Natasha and Marcus moved to one side of the hall, Iso turning into her Glaceon form along the way. Yang separated from the group and walked to Yin's side. Natasha had an agitated look on her face, knowing what was going to happen.

"Sword, I know what you're thinking and if you do it, I'll rip your heart out." she threatened.

"Shut it, or I'll turn you into a Magikarp." Yang threatened in return.

Marcus figured out what she meant, but didn't complain as much.

"Yeah, seeing on how we're going to be transformed, mind telling us on what we'll become?" he asked.

"Well, you should know the answer to yours, Marcus. Natasha's…well, let us see, shall we?" Yin said, looking over to Yang. They both locked eye contact, then both nodded.

They both drew their swords, surprising everyone. Instead of rushing forward, they pointed their blades at Marcus and Natasha. A beam of light shot out of both swords each, striking and vanishing harmlessly into both humans chests.

"Now, what you transform into depends on your favorite pokemon." Yin explained, sheathing his sword.

"If you don't have one…well…cross your fingers and hope for the best." Yang said with a grin.

Natasha was giving a death glare to both of them, but stopped when she felt something tugging at her hands. She looked and seen that her fingers minus the thumbs were fusing together, forming a metallic glove of sorts. The end of them formed a flat spike jutting out a few inches. The thumbs flattened and turned into spikes as well. A third set of blades came out of the sides opposite the thumbs.

While this was happening, her thighs doubled in thickness, turning red as well. Her shins though thinned to nearly half the thickness of her bones. They did, however, turn into the same metal as her claws, including her feet. The upper half of her legs turned red and doubled in thickness, afterward gained a metallic shine to it.

Yin caught onto what she was turning into and glanced over to Yang.

"_Psst, hey. Keep your sword ready, she might lunge at us once she finds out what she's becoming."_ Yin warned.

"_Tch, no need to tell me."_

They both continued to watch Natasha change. She winced as a pair of steel rib-like plates pushed out of her torso, the edges intimidated most of the group. Her hair hardened as well and started to form a helmet around her head, with a strip of yellow along the center. The strip pulled up at the ends, forming a yellow double-edged ax-head piece, silver at the edges.

Natasha finally caught onto what she was turning into and let an evil grin show on her face. Despite the changes, she lunged forth, intent on killing the duo before her. Both Yin and Yang drew their swords and were able to defend themselves from the initial strike.

Everyone who was watching the fight backed away, lest they unintentionally get involved. While the fight was going on, Marcus started undergoing his transformation.

His hair started turning tan and lengthening, taking a downwards V shape. It grew to cover his shoulders and upper chest area, as well as under his arms before turning into feathers of sort. His index-and-middle fingers, along with the ring-and-pinky fingers started to fuse until there were only three per hand. The skin started to turn a gray color with the fingernails turning into talons. The hardened skin continued until just below the elbows.

His shirt started to melt into his skin as red feathers started to grow along the rest of his arms. It didn't hurt him, but the feeling overall was very unpleasant. The feathers laid flat against his skin, blending seamlessly when more grew in. It continued past his shoulders, spreading up to around his neck and further down his torso.

As these changes were taking place, Lucas was shifting a little in Teresa's arms, having her gaze down to look at him.

"Lucas? Something wrong?" she asked.

Lucas looked up at her, eyes full of worry. "Well…I'm scared…"

"Huh? Scared of what?"

"I'm scared of that blade lady who's fighting Sword now," he said, pointing to the trio fighting "and also of what Marcus is becoming." pointing at said person.

Teresa was saddened on how Lucas felt, but continued to watch Marcus change.

Marcus' face started to be covered a bit by the feathers, but that wasn't the only change. He felt his nose pull out and down a bit, as well as his upper lip taking a hooked beak look. It continued until the 'beak' was formed and covered in feathers. A pair of them grew out further from the top of his eyebrows, forming another, though smaller, V shape pointing up.

Marcus looked over his body during the changes, flexing his talons for hands. He figured out what he was turning into, and didn't exactly complain.

_'Huh, guess that they were right.'_ he thought. _'I'm turning into a Blaziken.'_

His torso didn't change much aside from the red feathers, but his legs changed a bit. His pants melted as the feathers took their place, but turned yellow around halfway down his shins. Taking his shoes off, Marcus was able to see his pinky-ring-and-middle toes, along with the index-and-big toes fusing together, leaving only two per foot. The same type of skin on his hands formed on his feet as well, with the ends of the toes forming claws. The toes seem to lengthen as the feet split down the middle.

He yelped when he suddenly lost balance and fell face first on the floor. Almost immediately everyone except Yin, Yang and Natasha burst out laughing.

"Yeah, real funny guys." Marcus scowled, picking himself up.

When he picked himself up completely, he noticed that he was standing regularly. Lifting one of his now changed feet, he seen that they were talons as well, with a third behind where his heel was. Looking over his body, he figured the changes were done. He looked behind him and saw that he had a tail of sorts, made out of red feathers as well.

The sound of metal colliding stopped shortly after, making everyone look in the direction of the fight. Said fight was over, with Natasha on the ground, arms pinned to her back, struggling to break free of the grip Yang had on her. His left foot was on her lower legs, keeping them pinned as well. Despite this, he was struggling to keep a solid grip as is.

"Geez Yin, how the hell was I supposed to know she was that good?" Yang questioned, breathing hard from exhaustion.

"Don't ask me, right now we have to put restraints on her before she breaks free."

"You don't have to tell me twice about that."

Yin reached up and a small portal appeared. He put his hand through and rummaged around a bit. A few seconds later, he pulled it out, holding a couple of rings. He pulled on the rings, making them enlarge a bit. He slipped one past Natasha's head, pulling it down to around her stomach area. He let go and the ring shrunk to a tight fit, catching her arms as well. Yang let go of her arms and picked her up, arms wrapped around her.

This turned out to be a bad move, for Natasha started kicking her bladed legs around, trying to break free. She was yelling all kinds of profanities and curses in her Russian tongue, which fortunately no one understood. Yin readied the second ring and tried to hook it onto one of her flailing legs. He was able to, but nearly had the ring yanked from his grip. Tightening his grip, he pulled the ring a bit more, widening it again.

There was a loud 'chink' and Yang's eyes widened drastically. Yin looked for Natasha's other leg and noticed that it was stopped.

"Yin…" Yang barely called out.

"Hmm?"

"Put. The ring. On. Her legs. Now." Yang ordered, his voice a bit shaky, along with a tear forming in his eye.

"Alright…" Yin was able to grab a hold of Natasha's other leg, but found it to be stuck for some reason. He followed the leg to find out why it was stuck and…

"Ooo, that…has got to hurt." Yin winced.

Natasha had been able to get the back of her left foot to pierce Yang's skin in the privates. Yin readied the ring as he grabbed a hold of the leg, ready to yank it out.

"Okay, I think this will sting…a lot…when I pull her leg free." Yin warned.

"Just. Get. It. Out." Yang pleaded, his arms starting to shake.

Yin mentally counted to three, before yanking the foot loose and slipping it past the ring, trapping both legs. He did it so quickly that it took a second for Yang to register the pain. When he did, he dropped Natasha before dropping to his knees, whimpering, holding the stricken spot in pain.

Back with the main group, Marcus and everyone else was watching the scene, up to where Yang crumpled to the floor. They all wondered as for why someone like him was now curled up on the floor, twitching.

Yin noticed the stares he was getting and walked over to them.

"Yeah…if you're wondering, Natasha was able to do a kick strong enough to pierce his skin." he explained.

Marcus arced an eyebrow at this. "Mind telling us what spot she ended up hitting?" he asked.

Yin only leaned close and whispered at where Marcus' ears would be. After a few seconds, his eyes widened, now understanding the situation.

"_Yeah, that had to hurt."_ Marcus whispered back.

Yin separated from Marcus and looked over the group.

"Alright then, let's get going. Show's gonna start in a few minutes." he announced, turning to Marcus again. "Mind carrying Natasha while I tend to Yang?"

Marcus just shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, I'll do it. Besides, one swift punch from me and she's out cold."

Marcus walked over to Natasha, who was struggling, though not as violently due to exhaustion, against the restraints. He picked her up in an awkward bridal style mainly due to not wanting to be sliced by the numerous blades. Teresa came over to open the doors to the studio and let everyone else in.

Yin walked back over to Yang, who was slowly picking himself up off the floor.

"Yin…" he started "…I think I'm gonna need some ice to numb the pain for the show." He slammed his right fist into the ground. "After that, a doctor."

"Noted…" Yin said simply, helping his counterpart up. He slung Yang's right arm over his shoulder and helped him walk to backstage.

**-10 minutes later-**

Everyone was seated(standing in Aleron's case, while Yin and Yang sat in seats without backs to them(Yang now had a bag of ice covering his crotch area, a look of extreme discomfort on his face)) as the camera crew arrived. They adjusted the cameras, readying for the show as the audience seats started to fill up.

"Places everyone, we are live in 5…4…3…2…" a cameraman called out, moving his camera into position.

-0-

**And there you have Marcus' and Natasha's TF's. Ouch for Yang, who got it where the sun don't shine, especially since his anthro-Zekrom form has natural armor for skin. Natasha has become a Bisharp while Marcus a Blaziken.**

**Submit those questions and they'll answer them. Please keep the dares to a minimum, if you can.**

**Guest Stars;**

**Authors: Emo Princess Addie.**

**OC's: Isolde from Ryu Dragonclaw.**


	9. Episode 4

**Chapter 9 of Ask the Characters. The first theme of the show has come into effect, as well as having a couple of guest stars as well.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, or any major company brands. I own only the story and the OC's.**

-0-

_Ask the Characters_

_Chapter 9: Pokefied Showtime!_

"We are live in 5…4…3…2…"

"What's up everyone and welcome back to Ask the Characters." Yin started, spreading his arms wide.

"Sword currently isn't here for today's show, but I, Yin, and my twin, Yang, are taking his spot for tonight." he lied to try and keep the show going. Yang just grunted as the cameras turned towards him.

"Anyway, if you hadn't noticed, the show has a theme going on. The Pokemon theme, where everyone is…well, a pokemon." he pointed towards Marcus and Natasha, the latter having given up on struggling.

"These two, the Blaziken and Bisharp, are Marcus and Natasha respectively. Now, the reason for the rings on Natasha…lets just say that she didn't fully enjoy the changes. And she's the reason why Yang has an ice pack on his…" Yin trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence.

"Yeah, don't ask…" Yang said, still wincing in pain from the kick.

"Right, today, we have two guest stars. The first is Isolde the Glaceon, or Iso, from Ryu Dragonclaw." Said pokeuman wagged her tail in a waving gesture.

"The second is Emo Princess Addie, here as a Celebi anthro." Addie did a peace sign for the cameras.

"I myself happen to be a Reshiram anthro, while Yang is a Zekrom anthro." Yin stated.

"Hey, Yin?" Addie called out. The cameras turn to face her as well as said person. "Well, when Sword invited me here, I brought some presents with me. I'll give them out when the show's almost over, okay?" she finished, hands behind her back.

"Alright, lets get to the questions shall we?" Yin called out, holding his right arm out. The review box landed right on his hand, in which he opened it.

"Okay, the first few are from…huh, from Addie."

_Emo Princess Addie_

_Natasha: Don't talk for the whole show. You're a ninja right? Should be easy._

Everyone turned to look at Natasha, who still had a pissed look on her face.

"I doubt she'll talk for a while, especially since this theme is going on." Marcus commented.

"Moving on…" Yin stated.

_Yin and Yang: Talk at the same time through the whole show._

"I don't think that will happen, especially since Yang will need a while to recover."

_Aleron: Uh, Fly Delta?_

"**Huh?**"

_Yang: Turn off the gravity so everyone floats for a bit._

A grin appeared on his face. "Heheh, sure." He raised a hand and snapped his fingers.

Almost immediately, everyone started to float up out of their seats. Lucas started freaking out a bit while Teresa tried to calm him down. Marcus grabbed onto his seat and had to grab Natasha at the same time. Aleron, since he didn't have hands or anything nearby to hook onto, floated upwards, demanding the gravity to be turned back on. Iso bit onto one of the chairs, trying to not let go. Addie, thanks to her wings, kept herself from floating away and couldn't help but giggle at the reactions of everyone else.

"Okay, time's up!" Yin declared, snapping his fingers and turning gravity back on.

Everyone who was in the air landed hard onto the floor. There were several moans from them, excluding those that hung on to the chairs. After a minute of gathering themselves, everyone sat back in there chairs.

"**Addie…**" Aleron started "**don't ever request something like that again…**" This caused said poke-anthro to burst out laughing.

"Sorry, but it was just too much fun to watch."

"Next!" Yang called out.

_Lucas: Yank Teresa's tail._

"Uh…" Lucas said nervously, looking back to Teresa.

"If you won't do it…" Yang started, getting up slowly to avoid a pain spike. He lumbered over and yanked Teresa's tail roughly, causing her to yelp out and change back into her zorua form.

"Okay, you didn't have to yank _that_ hard!" Teresa complained, a vein popping on her head.

"Hey, it was worth it in my opinion." Yang said, walking back to his seat.

_'Heh, finally!'_ Addie cheered in her mind, doing a small fist-pump that was unnoticed by the others.

"Okay, the next ones are from ShinyMew112." Yang called out.

_ShinyMew11_

_Everyone: Besides the Pokemon series, what other games do you prefer?_

"Beat-em'-ups sometimes." Marcus answered.

"Eep!" Lucas sqeaked, afraid of Marcus due to his answer.

"Hey, whoa. I don't actually beat people up Lucas." he quickly said, attempting to calm the young one down.

"…" Natasha stayed silent.

"**Meh, I drift around when it comes to games.**" Aleron said simply.

"Strategy games, mainly TBT**[1]** and RTS**[2]**." Yin said.

"Shooters…" Yang dully stated.

"I don't play video games much." Teresa shrugged. "Anyway, next one."

_Aleron, Teresa, and Lucas: What would you be doing if your transformations didn't happen?_

"…" everyone remained silent.

"Ya know, that's a really good question…" Teresa stated, going into a thinking position.

"…I would still be with Julie…" Lucas sadly said.

"Okay, skipping on before the emotions start showing…" Yang rudely said, earning glares from everyone. "Next one is from Tanon."

_Tanon_

_Yin and/or Yang: Natasha = Magikarp, NOW!_

An evil grin crept on his face upon reading the dare. He turned his head to Natasha, who figured out what was coming. She started to struggle against the rings to no avail as Yang reached down at one of his pockets and pulled out a small, pitch-black sphere. He then threw it like a pro baseball pitcher at Natasha, who stopped struggling and squeezed her eyes shut.

The orb exploded into a black cloud in front of her face. It covered her whole body as Marcus jumped from his seat, not wanting to be involved in whatever was going on. All eyes were on the cloud, in which it started to disperse. When it was fully gone, a fishbowl with a really pissed off Natasha/Magikarp swimming in it. The rings were still somehow on her, binding her fins to her body.

"Uh, Yang? I think you should change her back." Yin suggested, feeling a little uneasy about the situation.

"Why should I?" Yang questioned. "I think her being a magikarp is better than a walking blade display."

Even though her fins were bound to her side, Natasha's rear fin was still able to move. Being a little knowledgeable about her current species, she swam as low as she can make herself. No one except Lucas and Iso noticed her doing so, watching her perform whatever she was doing.

After getting into position, she pressed her rear fin at the bottom of the bowl and shot out of it. Water sprayed everywhere, surprising everyone on stage. She flew up to around the walkways above, then dove straight down at Yang, aiming at a particularly weak spot. Said person looked at her, then traced where she was going. His eyes grew wide, then he tried to catch her before it was too late.

However, Natasha rocketed past his hands and nailed the bag of ice, sending the force of the impact through them and onto the already-sensitive area. Yang's eyes widened dramatically and he froze mid-pose while Natasha fell to the ground and started flopping around. Marcus bolted from his seat and grabbed Natasha, then ran back and put her back in the bowl. After leveling out, a smug grin was seen on her face, proud of her work.

Yin, not wanting her to try anything else, threw a white colored orb that did the same as Yang's. Only this time Natasha was back to being a Bisharp, the grin still on her face. Yang was still frozen mid-pose, tears welling up.

"Uh, Yang?" Yin asked, concerned. "You alright?"

No response came from him, which worried Yin.

"Ooookay, I think you need to see a doctor…" he said, clapping his hands twice. A Chansey and an Audino, both wearing nurse caps, came in carrying a stretcher. They stopped in front of Yang and lifted him out of his seat, who was practically frozen. They placed him on his side on the stretcher and carried him out.

"Is he going to be alright?" Iso asked, concerned.

"I hope so…" Lucas answered.

"Okay…minor complication aside, lets continue." Yin stated, looking at the next slip of paper.

_Natasha: How the hell were you able to find Javier so quickly after his transformation?_

"…" Natasha stayed silent.

"Well…" Yin started. "Let's just say that GENE has its ways."

_Does your name come from the gun in Team Fortress 2?_

"That's Sasha. Close, but you'll have to move to a different game genre to find out." Yin answered.

He put the slip away and pulled out another one. "This one is from Ryu Dragonclaw."

_Ryu Dragonclaw_

_Everyone: If you were to have any fifth gen item, what would it be?_

"**Probably one of those Burn or Shock Drives. Anything to test out how flexible my cannon is when it comes to types.**" Aleron answered.

"Okay, next one is from Okami Saphira." Yin called out.

_Okami Saphira_

_Everyone: Do any of you know Japanese myths? What about Okami?_

"I don't think I heard of either of those…" Marcus said.

"Same…" Teresa and Lucas followed at the same time.

"I heard of the game but no myths." Yin stated.

"I may have heard of a few myths, but I can't remember which ones." Addie said.

"Okay, moving on. This next one is from MustardofDoom27."

_MustardofDoom27._

_Everyone: If you were to meet a Jirachi, what would you wish for?_

"Hmm…" Everyone got into thinking poses, minus Natasha for obvious reasons.

"**For one, I'd wish to be back to normal.**" Aleron stated after a few minutes.

"No doubt what Natasha would want." Marcus said, glancing at said person, who threw a harsh glare.

"I would want to go back home…" Lucas trailed off.

"Hmm…That seems to be the last one." Yin stated, looking in the review box. "Now Addie, those gifts you said you had?"

"Oh, right! Be back in a minute." Addie called back as she headed backstage. A minute passed until she returned, holding a small box.

"Okay, everyone gather round." she called out. Everyone got up to see what she had.

"For Lucas, I have a paddle ball." Addie said, pulling out said item. "They did have these things two-hundred years back, right?"

"I guess…" Lucas answered, taking the item and tried to play with it.

"For Teresa, I have a vial of a blue fluid that will heal you. That, and it'll taste like cotton candy."

"Oh, thank you Addie." Teresa said, grabbing the vial and pocketing it.

"Yin, and Yang as well, a pokeball with any pokemon you want." Addie said, pulling out a duo of pokeballs.

"That'll be handy, thanks." Yin thanked.

"Natasha, for being such a ninja, here's some ninja stars." She leaned in close to whisper. "…that you can throw at people that annoy you."

Natasha grinned at this, but that soon vanished when Yin swiped the stars out of Addie's hands.

"In the meantime, I'll be holding on to them." Yin stated, pocketing the stars. He got a death-glare from Natasha afterward.

"And for Aleron…a machete, HOO-AH!"

"…" Aleron arced a non-existent eyebrow to his gift. "**Uh, how is that going to help me?**"

Addie got into a thinking pose for a few seconds. After thinking of what to do, she held her left hand up, finger pointing up, until she shoved the handle of the blade into the cannon's opening.

"There! Now it'll be helpful."

"**What the…? Hey! Get that out of there!**" Aleron said, trying to reach for it to get it out. "**My cannon will blow if I try to fire it while that's in there!**" He tried to get it out, but to no avail. Marcus grabbed Aleron from behind, keeping him still as he pulled the blade out.

"**Thanks Marcus.**"

"No problem." Marcus replied, handing the blade to Yin, who took it backstage. He returned a minute later, ready to end today's show.

"That's all we have for today. I'm Yin…"

"Yang!" yelled Yang from the infirmary.

"**Aleron Bane…**"

"Marcus Flint…"

"Teresa Yuna…"

"Lucas Alexander…"

"Natasha Cova…" Natasha finally spoke.

"Isolde…"

"Emo Princess Addie…"

A bright glow covered Yin, Natasha, Marcus, Iso, and Addie. After the glowing subsided, they were back in their human forms, minus the rings for Natasha.

"And we'll see ya next time!" Yin finished.

"And we're out!" a camera man called out.

This is where Natasha decides to get payback.

"Sword…" Natasha started, fake-calmly walking towards Yin.

"Hmm?" Yin asked, turning around.

When he fully turned around, he got a sucker-punch to the face, sending him flying into a set of stage curtains.

"DON'T YOU EVER DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT TO ME AGAIN!" Natasha yelled, fire in her eyes and fist smoking. Everyone else shrank at the sight of the demonic woman, not wanting to incur her wrath.

"Okay, I think this is the time for me to leave…" Iso said, backing away. She turned around and ran full speed, a cloud of snow building up. It quickly formed the door she came through and opened up, allowing her to go through. The door slammed shut and faded to nothing.

"Same here!" Addie quickly near-yelled. The orb of light appeared and drew her door in almost an instant. Addie bolted through the door, not wanting to around Natasha.

"Yeah…we'll be going as well…" Marcus said slowly, stepping back to the exit. Aleron, Teresa and Lucas followed him, picking up speed as they went. When they reached the exit, it turned into an all out run.

"Hmph, might as well leave too." Natasha simply said, casually heading for the exit.

As soon as Natasha stepped outside, Yin was able to pull himself out of the pile of curtains, his nose bleeding from the punch.

"Jesus almighty…" he muttered, rubbing his nose to try and numb the pain. "That…is another reason why I shouldn't get her angry…"

As he stood back up, swaying a little from minor blood loss, a slip of paper floated down from above, catching his attention. Reaching out with his left hand, he caught it and looked at it. It was a question that slipped past the show, but he found out as for why.

"Heh, don't worry. Next day, the Luck duo will be coming." he calmly said, folding the slip of paper and tucking it in a pocket. _'First though…I have to not only check up on Yang, but to also keep myself from bleeding out…'_

He made his way backstage, just as the stage lights shut off.

-0-

**[1] = Turn Based Tactical.**

**[2] = Real-Time Strategy.**

**And now you all know to NOT piss Natasha off.**

**Also, the pattern of theme and non-theme shows will be as such:**

**Non-theme day: Preparation, and Showtime.**

**Theme day: Preparation, Theme coming into effect, then Showtime.**

**Okay, next chapter's going to be an omake, or bonus, chapter. Also, two more characters are going to be coming next show. Submit your questions and I'll see what I can do.**


	10. Omake: Yin and Yang Sword Transformation

**A special for the fans of the Yin and Yang duo. This one came to me during a wicked dream…weird source, I know, but this should be worth your time if you like one method of transformation. There's also a method of TF that I created that will happen in this as well.**

**Now, this one will go into the POV's of both characters, meaning that they get transformed at roughly the same time. And please note that this isn't tied in terms of story with the main show, for this is just a bonus chapter. Also, I will be using a feature that will be in the next Bioshock game. I won't spoil what though. That, and I don't own it.**

**Beta-Reader(s)/Co-Author(s): NanoCarp, Tanon**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, or any major company brands. I own only the story and the OC's.**

-0-

_Ask the Characters_

_Omake chapter: Yin Sword and Yang Sword Transformation_

"This the right place?"

"Should be, the map points to this mansion."

"It'd better, I'm tired of having to walk all this way."

A duo of people stood at the base of an impressive pair of doors. The doors in question were a mix of gold and silver, resulting in an expensive look. The one holding a parchment map was dressed entirely in white, which was complemented by his snow-white hair. His skin was quite pale except for a golf-ball sized black dot on his forehead. He had a sword strapped to him angled over his right shoulder.

The person next to him, with folded arms, was dressed in jet-black clothes. His dark skin and equally dark hair would have had him blend into the night sky, if it wasn't for the golf-ball sized white dot on his forehead. A sword of the same color was strapped to him as well, only angled over his left shoulder.

They were both Yin Sword and Yang Sword respectively, the good/evil personas of the original Sword. Currently, they were taking a break from their popular show, Ask the Characters, to visit a big fan of the show at their house they had been invited to. When they warped in the area of the building however, they found out that their abilities were hampered, but not their swordplay skills and agility.

"Yin, you sure that we're at the right place?" Yang asked impatiently.

"Yes Yang, I'm sure we're at his house. Andrew told us that it would be this mansion." Yin glanced up towards the top of the doors, which were over three stories tall. "Thing is, he never told us it was gonna be _this_ huge."

"Yeah, but I'm not sure if _mansion_ is the right title for this place. I mean, it's the size of a freaking CASTLE!" Yang said, yelling the last part. "And the question is if we're even gonna get them open, let alone get his attention." Yang pointed out.

As if the mansion heard him, a giant door knocker shaped like a lions head formed on the door, gold in color, with a ring half their size hanging from it, surprising both guests.

"Well… seems like we have a way in now.." Yin said, walking to the handle.

He got a grip of the handle, and lifted it up. It was heavier than it looked and he was unable to get it far.

"Geez, what did they make these things out of, real solid gold?" Yin huffed. "Yang, mind helping me out?" he requested.

Yang rolled his eyes and walked over to help his counterpart. Grabbing hold, they both lifted the handle up over their heads. They nodded to each other, letting go and quickly stepping back, letting the handle slam back into place. They both winced and clapped their hands over their ears as the impact sounded like thunder up close. After the sound died down, they lowered their hands and looked at the door, waiting for something to happen. After a dozen seconds, Yang was growing impatient.

"Is Andrew even here? Or awake for that matter?" he demanded, throwing his arms wide to further show his point.

"Huh, I guess he isn't home now. Might as well head back." Yin sadly stated.

"WHAT? YOU MEAN WE HAVE TO WALK THE WHOLE THREE HOURS BACK TO WHERE WE CAME FROM?" Yang bellowed.

"Ugh, we have to." Yin moaned. "For some reason, we can't warp back from here. That's why we had to come in from so far away." He turned his back to the door. "Lets go then…" disappointed, he starts walking down the path, Yang following right behind. Before they could walk ten steps, they heard creaking and spun around.

The doors to the mansion were opening, the doors slowly moving on their own.

"Well well well, turns out he is home." Yin said, smirking a little.

"Hmph, seems like we don't have to waste time back-tracking then…" Yang said, unimpressed.

They both walked towards the doors, unaware that two pairs of eyes were watching them, one red and one blue. Walking through the doors, they were greeted by the lobby, which was over seven stories in height, with the occasional walkway on the walls to other rooms. Flanking both sides of the lobby were smaller versions of the front door they walked through.

"Heeeellooo? Anyone home?" Yin called out, his voice echoing off the walls.

As they were walking though, there was a squelching noise that caused both of them to look down.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Yang bellowed out.

On the floor was a small puddle of ink that Yang had the misfortune to step in. Yang got ticked off, and started kicking his foot, trying to get as much of the ink off as he could.

"Isn't Andrew supposed to look after this place?" He questioned angrily, still swinging his foot. The ink was coming off surprisingly easily.

After checking to make sure all the ink was off, both Swords continued walking down the lobby. When they got halfway through the lobby though, they were both frozen in their spots. Not by ice, but by something unseen.

"What the…? I can't move!" Yin exclaimed.

"You're not the only one!" Yang replied.

They tried to struggle against their unseen restraints to no avail. Shortly after starting, they were picked up by the same force, making them struggle even more.

"Put me down whoever you are or you'll be sorry!" Yang threatened. The response was him being hurled through a now-open pair of doors. He landed roughly inside, face down but was able to recover quickly. He started running towards the main lobby, but the doors slammed shut in his face.

"YANG!" Yin cried out. He was hurled through a pair of doors opposite the ones Yang was tossed, landing in the same fashion as well. The doors slammed shut, echoing through the lobby. The watching eyes looked at each other, then vanished in the air.

–_Yang–_

"LET ME THE F*** OUT OF HERE NOW!" Yang yelled, banging against the door in a futile attempt to open them. He drew his sword and swung it at the doors, only to bounce off.

"What the?" he questioned. "Damned doors were supposed to be sliced open by that."

He tried again and again, getting the same results each time. His anger peaking, he sheathed his sword and shoulder charged the doors, the impact knocking the breath out of him. The doors stayed shut, not budging at all. After a few charges, he started to tire and stopped. He propped himself against the doors, resting a little. A few minutes later, his breathing evened out, and he stood back up. When separated from Yin, Yang tends to be a little on edge way more often then when together. Not only that, but he was the more experienced at fighting, often letting Yin stay at the sides.

He looked around and noticed that he was in a library of sorts. Bookshelves as high as a double-story building were lined with books. He looked up and noticed platforms with ropes through pulley systems hanging from the ceiling, each carrying several hundred books. The ropes were tied to anchors that were attached to the shelves.

"Yeah, that's just begging for an accident to happen…" he commented, sweat-dropping a little.

Walking down one of the aisles, he noticed that they were mostly about ancient history. Curious, he grabbed one off the shelves and opened it. Immediately, he was stumped on the contents.

"Wha-? Alchemical Arrays? Equivalent Exchange? The hell does all this mean?" Closing the book, he put it back in its place and continued walking. "I know one thing; Yin dreams about places like these." Walking out of the aisle, he found himself in a circular area with a massive star chart in the center. Hanging from the ceiling was a chandelier that was the size of the average master bedroom, complete with lit candles.

"Wheeew" he whistled as he looked around, taking in the sights. "Scratch that, every nerd dreams about places like this." Eyes falling upon the star chart which looked like a large circular table. It was pitch black in the center, with half a dozen feet from the edge to allow people to sit at the chart to study it. On the surface of the chart, thousands of faint dots of light glimmered on it. There were also supposedly abandoned ink bottles littering the surface of the study area as well.

Yang noticed a pedestal on one edge of the map and walked over to check it out. Walking up the small set of stairs, he noticed that there were knobs on it, with a number above each of them. Currently, the chart read at 11/28/2011, so he adjusted the furthest right knob to where the last number clicked up one. All the dots on the table started to rearrange themselves, forming the star chart for the projected next year.

"Scratch that again. I dream about this stuff…wow…" Yang muttered, slightly impressed himself.

Stepping down from the pedestal, he continued walking around the table, and continued down the aisle of bookshelves. Little did he know that the ink he had stepped into was following him, slithering along the floor. It slid up onto the table and started gathering the ink from the bottles, growing larger the more it gathered. When it gathered all the ink, it oozed itself off the table and down one of the aisles heading in the same general direction as Yang, not leaving a speck of it behind on the floor.

Yang came across yet another clearing, except this one had tables littered everywhere, with chairs stacked upside-down on them. Even more ink bottles were lying around as well, some tipped on their sides, forming puddles with the ink. Another chandelier hung from the ceiling, the same as the last one, casting a soft glow wherever it would reach.

"Ugh, even the studio would be cleaner than this…" Yang commented.

He was about to enter the next aisle of bookshelves until he heard something behind him. Slightly paranoid about being locked in here, he whipped around and drew his sword, leveling it with his left arm. He scanned the area, tuning his ears for anything making a sound. After a few tense seconds, he relaxed, lowering his blade. He was about to turn around and sheath his sword until he saw something moving at the other side of the clearing. He got his sword back to where he had it, ready for anything that might come. He got a good look at what he saw and nearly dropped his sword in surprise.

At the other end of the clearing, a giant blob of goo was drawing in and absorbing the ink from the bottles, growing larger by the second. When all the ink was absorbed, the blob was around six feet in height. It then started to mold itself into something else, something that was extremely familiar to Yang, who stepped back in shock.

"What the hell…?" he questioned. "Is that thing forming what I think it is?"

The blob was forming what he guessed, shaping itself into the dragon he knew. The wings formed first, splattering the ink everywhere, but it crawled back, merging like as though nothing happened. The arms unfolded next, dripping ink as well. The tail followed, forming a turbine that had droplets of ink slipping off it. The legs were formed next, extending to the ground and forming the feet upon contact. The torso followed after, the 'skin' shining from the light of the chandelier. The head was last, taking the exact shape Yang remembered. When it was complete, the eyes opened, showing bright red eyes.

"A Zekrom…" Yang muttered, remembering the time he was an anthro of one.

"_Greetings, Yang…"_ a voice called out in his head.

"What the…! Who's there?" Yang demanded, tightening his grip on the sword, shifting his gaze to find the source of the voice.

"_I am the only one here besides you, Yang."_ the voice replied in a calm tone.

"Wait…" he looked back at the ink-zekrom. "It's you that's speaking?"

"_In a way, yes."_ 'Zekrom' answered.

_'Telepathy, I see.'_ Yang thought, a little relieved but still tense. He then had to ask something important.

"Where's Yin?" he asked simply.

"_Do not worry, he is in no harm, nor shall any come to him."_ Zekrom calmly replied.

"Then answer this; why were the both of us separated?"

Zekrom remained quiet, making Yang suspect something.

"I ask again, why were we separated?" Yang demanded with a hint of anger.

Zekrom, again, remained quiet, further agitating Yang.

"Either you start talking or I start dicing!" he threatened, shifting his right leg in front to show his seriousness.

Zekrom just closed its eyes and lightly shook its head back and forth. It opened its eyes and spoke in a serious tone. _"I don't have time for this."_

Without warning, the Zekrom charged forward, sending any tables in the way flying. Yang barely had enough time to dodge to the side, sliding under a flying table. He was surprised on the sudden aggression, and demanded answers.

"What the hell are you doing?"

The zekrom skidded to a stop after it failed to crash into Yang, bits of ink flying off from the stop and smearing onto the floor.

"_I'm sorry, but I have very little time on this plane of existence. I have to merge myself with you in order to live."_ it communed, readying itself for another charge.

"Wait, WHAT?" Yang yelled, jumping backwards to dodge again. "What do you mean you have to merge with me?"

Skidding after another stop, Zekrom threw a glob of itself at Yang. Leaping to the side, he was unable to completely dodge it, his right foot getting hit. He yelped when pain shot through it and crouched to try and put pressure on it. When he did though, he noticed said glob had turned into a replica of the zekrom's right foot, no longer looking like ink and the pain stopped. Realization shot through him upon finding out that his 'real' foot was now like Zekrom's.

"You're gonna turn me into you?" he demanded, slightly afraid now.

"_Yes, and unfortunately, it is not temporary."_ Zekrom apologetically said. _"I just wish there was another way."_

Feeling afraid for the first time in a while, Yang knew this is a fight he couldn't win. Sheathing his sword, he ran down one of the aisles of bookshelves, but not before grabbing one and taking a leaf from Marcus' book. He tilted himself, pulling the bookshelf with it, and tipping the shelf into falling. The bookshelves were older than they looked, for when the falling one crashed into the one in front of it, all the racks on it broke off, sending their books to the floor. Fortunately, they didn't topple into one another and a wall of debris was created.

"There, that should buy me some ti-" Yang started but stared wide-eyed and jaw-dropped on what was happening. The ink-zekrom was oozing its way through, determined to finish its job.

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" he yelled before taking off again.

The ink-zekrom was able to reform itself before taking after Yang. Stealing a glance back, Yang noticed that the distance between him and it was closing rapidly. He forced his legs into overdrive, though his new foot wasn't exactly helping. Looking ahead, he noticed one of the ropes holding a platform of books ahead. Smirking, he drew his sword and swung at the rope, cutting it easily. The platform, no longer anchored, came crashing down on the spot where the rope was cut. Yang barely got out of the way, but the ink-zekrom wasn't as lucky.

It slammed into the pile of books, unable to stop itself. It splattered on impact, bits of itself flying skyward. Not wasting a moment, Yang bolted down the aisle after sheathing his sword, intent on escaping the possessed ink.

_'That should keep it there for a while.'_ he thought.

The ink-zekrom reformed shortly after, fury evident on its face.

"_No more fooling around!"_ it bellowed out.

Its right wing melted into its body as a lump started traveling up its throat. When it reached its mouth, it spat it out, rocketing towards Yang, who was nearing the end of the aisle. Yang didn't notice the projectile until it smacked him in the back, knocking him off his feet and into another opening, this one with study stalls arranged like a maze. Crying out, Yang tried to rip the glob off, but it merged to his skin, forming one of the wings on his right shoulder blade.

Seeing that the wing was there to stay, he got back up and ran into the maze of study stalls, which were tall enough to hide him. Feeling that was in deep enough, he jumped into one of the stalls, hiding under the desk, pulling his wing under as well.

Despite it only having one wing, the ink-zekrom was still able to fly, although it was limited to hovering low above the ground. Upon seeing the maze of stalls, it let out a grunt.

"_You are only delaying the inevitable Yang!"_ it called out. It let its tail ooze off, setting it to find Yang as it went down a different aisle. _"As I speak, your friend is being pursued by my counterpart to be merged as well."_

"Yin…" Yang whimpered, officially worried.

"_Both of us only wish for our legacies to live longer."_ it continued._ "We accepted the fact that we would have to alter another being's appearance permanently. However, we needed to choose someone who would be worthy enough for our gift. I am sorry if you don't accept this at first, but over time you will grow to like it."_

"_But…what about my humanity? Will I still keep it? Will Yin keep his? Not physically, but mentally?"_ Yang echoed in his mind, unaware of the glob heading in his direction.

"_You do not have to worry about that."_ Zekrom reassured. Yang, however, wasn't buying it. _"You will still keep your memories and what made you human. Your friend will have the same benefits, so neither of you will forget who you are."_

Yang was about to call back until he saw something enter the stall out the corner of his eye. He looked over and felt his heat skip a beat. A blob of the ink-zekrom entered the stall and had him cornered.

"Hey, HEY! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME YOU GIANT SLIME!" He yelled, drawing his sword and slashing at it, but to no effect. Where he sliced, the slime would just reform.

The yelling attracted the ink-zekrom. It took off running, going a bit faster since its tail wasn't there to weigh it down.

Seeing that his current actions were futile, Yang scurried out from under the desk and leaped over the wall to another stall. However, the slime attached itself to his lower back when he jumped, causing him to hook onto the wall and smack his face into it.

"GYAAAOOOOWWWW!" he screamed, covering his face. He let go of his sword, which stuck itself on the desk of the stall.

The slime, now attached, oozed itself over the wall, forming the turbine tail. When it did, Yang dropped from the wall, landing on his head on the desk half a foot down. He then fell onto the floor of the stall, though his new tail made it extremely uncomfortable. Getting up, although uneasily, he grabbed his sword and yanked it from its spot. Not taking any chances, he held his sword with a tight grip, determined to defend himself.

He walked out of the stall after checking to make sure the coast was clear. He could hear the footfalls of the possessed ink, but he thought it was far enough for him to escape. Checking one last time, Yang walked out, still looking behind him in case it was coming from behind. When he did, he looked forward, only to see Zekrom right in front of him, rearing its right arm back. He had no time to dodge, for he was grabbed by the head.

Almost immediately, the ink started pouring onto his head. He tried to free himself, but it was futile. Yang nearly lost hope until he remembered what Zekrom was made of. Tightening his grip on his sword, he swung upward, severing the hand from Zekrom's arm. It was shocked on Yang's desperate attack and stumbled back, bringing its other hand over. Cut off from its source, the hand on Yang's face spread the remainder of the ink over his head. Yang then ran like a madman, determined to get out of the death-trap maze. Despite being blinded, he was somehow able to make it out and down another aisle of bookshelves.

Realizing that the ink was cutting off his intake of oxygen, he dropped to his knees, and tried to pry the ink off his face. He was running out of air, yet he couldn't get a grip on the ink. When he felt like as though he was going to pass out, his mouth was opened again, letting the rich taste of air rush in. After a few deep breaths, he raised a hand to his face. Instead of his human face, he was touching the face that was given to him. He felt further back and noticed that his whole head was like Zekrom's.

_'Great, so much for my head…'_ Yang thought bitterly. _'If this is Andrew's idea of a prank, he is so dead!'_

He got up and continued running down the lane, praying that he could find an exit to escape. While running, he looked back at the turbine tail attached to him, a little disgruntled by the fact that it would slow him down a bit. He also didn't notice while in the maze, but he knew that the tail was supposed to be larger than his body. He shrugged that thought off and thought of something as he was getting close to the end of the lane. If the situation was different, he would be trying to find out how his tail would work. He would need to learn in the case that he didn't get out before being completely transformed.

He was able to walk out of the lane and ended up in yet another clearing, except this one was devoid of anything in the center. Looking up, he noticed another chandelier, except this one was triple in size, held up by four chains anchored to pillars, along with a fifth keeping it centered, anchored directly to the ceiling. A stained glass dome was the bottom of it, casting a variety of patterns across the floor. Figuring this was a ballroom dance floor of sorts, he trekked across to the other side, only to stop when he found out it was a dead end.

"Ugh, perfect." Yang muttered. "Now I have to backtrack through the whole damn library and past the demon ink…"

"_You don't have to walk all the way back."_ the dreadfully familiar voice rang. _"The exit is right in front of you. It's just that you can't see it yet."_

Glued to his spot, he whipped around and to his horror, seen the ink being again. Ink was dripping off where Yang severed its right hand, but instead of landing on the floor, the droplets flew back up into the arm. Its right wing and tail missing due to Yang possessing them now.

Yang was cornered. After taking a second to find any possible routes out of his current predicament, he eventually settled on one, although slightly risky, action that would allow him to execute the plan he was forming in his mind.

"Yaaah!" Yang yelled as he charged straight at the dragon-shaped horror that stood in his way. Not expecting such an unorthodox maneuver, ink-zekrom took a step back in surprise, which was all Yang needed to dive to the ground, landing on his side, and slide between the legs of his adversary. For good measure, he lashed out above him with his sword, smiling slightly when he heard the pokémon above him roar in pain. Using the extra time afforded to him by the distracted ink-zekrom, he ran to the center of the ballroom to get a better look at the room.

He was standing, as he had previously observed, in the middle of the dance floor, but it was one that had obviously not been used for a long time, as several long tables were stacked, one on top of another, against the wall opposite the distracted ink-zekrom. In the corner, to the right of the stacked tables and only a few meters or so from the ink-zekrom, lay the tablecloths that would have been used with the tables.

Dashing over towards the pile of tables, he began to climb. Meanwhile, ink-zekrom had begun casting around for Yang. _"__Why do you hide? What I offer should be something you want, not something to fear!"_

"_Oh yeah? Then why don't you ask, instead of just forcing it on me and Yin?"_ Yang thought back furiously in his head.

_"__Because we can't!" _The strength of the reply caused Yang to wince and nearly lose his foothold. Nevertheless, he managed to make it to the top of the pile, eying his target, as the ink-zekrom continued to reply angrily. _"We couldn't! If you had denied our request, we wouldn't have had time to find two more candidates! So even if you had refused, we would have merged with you anyway! If we were going to merge, then why bother asking?"_

Yang was still nervously eying the relatively large gap between his position on the tables and the chandelier that dangled in the center of the room. Taking a short run up, he reached the edge of the table and had just begun to launch himself at one of the connecting chains that lay only two and a half meters away from him. So tantalizingly close...

When the ink-zekrom slammed into the pile of tables under him, his foot suddenly found itself pushing against air.

_'Crap.' _Yang thought. Having lost his run up, Yang could only watch helplessly as he fell just short of the chain. Instead of trying to reach out and grab it with his hands, he quickly unsheathed his sword (which he had sheathed during his climb) and slashed at the chain, snapping it cleanly in two. He didn't have much time to celebrate, however, as he found himself coming face-to-face with the ground. Throwing his sword into the center of the room so as to not hurt himself with it, he righted himself and braced his legs for the strain they would have to endure. Landing harshly, he grunted a little from the impact, as well as leaving an impact mark due to his right foot.

Ink-Zekrom had now turned around, and was glaring at him menacingly. Realizing that he only stood a chance of defeating Ink-Zekrom with his sword, Yang sprinted for it, picking it up with one fluid motion as the chandelier swung menacingly above him, severed chain dangling uselessly from it.

'_The only way I'm going to be able to get on that chain is if I've got something to stand on...' _Yang thought furiously as Ink-Zekrom growled and began lumbering towards him.

_"__Why do you run?"_

Yang dodged out of the way of two arms that came scything in from around him as Ink-zekrom tried to engulf him in a bear hug by ducking and backing away frantically.

_"Why do you hide?"_

Ink-Zekrom ripped a piece of himself out of his last wing, which condensed into a globule of ink, which he threw at Yang, who instinctively swung his sword wildly at it. By sheer luck, he managed to slap the ink away from him.

_"__Is this not something you would wish for?"_

Ink-zekrom had chased him into the center of the hall. Looking up at the chain that dangled just out of his reach, Yang had an idea. Backing away from the center of the hall, he waited for Ink-zekrom to charge him again.

_"__My logic is undeniable."_

The black pokémon charged at him. Yang tensed as he prepared himself.

_"__You could be a god."_

With a yell, Yang also charged at the Deep Black Pokemon. Expecting the two baseball mitt-shaped hands to come rushing at him again, he tensed himself and jumped off his left foot. Extending his right foot, which had already transformed into Zekrom's, he used the Ink-Zekrom's hand as a stepping stone and leaped for the chain. Easily making the jump, he quickly sheathed his sword and frantically began to climb.

_"__What the-"_

Arms burning, Yang reached the top and unsheathed his sword. In one swift stroke he bought it down on the attachment between one of the 3 remaining chains and the chandelier it was connected to. He forgot a simple physics lesson, however, and as such was thrown off balance as the chandelier, now unsupported by its third chain, swung downwards and towards the side of the hall. Yang was sent off the swinging chandelier, arms and legs flailing in an attempt to stabil-

_"_Ow!" Yang startled himself with the sound of his own voice; It hadn't sounded like a word, but more like a roar.

And ended up landing on his tail. Ink-Zekrom chuckled.

_"__If I can't catch you, I'll have to change you bit by bit. It's much longer this way, for me and for you."_

Grunting, Yang struggled to his feet, only to be knocked back down by a blob of ink that slammed into his chest. It sunk straight through his clothing, and Yang could feel it eating into his skin as he stumbled to his feet again, heading for the tablecloths that were piled in a corner. Ink-Zekrom, for all he was, was still made of ink, right?

Unable to use his mouth to speak properly, Yang reverted to telepathy. _"Well then, come and get me...I can dodge your throws all day!"_

Receiving a growl in response, his assailant charged him again, throwing bits of himself at Yang all the time, which would flow back into the Zekrom's form when they missed. Yang waited until the last moment before ripping the topmost tablecloth off, causing dust to billow all around him, and throwing it at the Zekrom. An enraged roar told him that whatever the tablecloth was doing, it was bad for the Ink-Zekrom. For good measure, he threw another tablecloth onto the quivering pile before heading for the chandelier.

_'If I can get that chandelier to drop, it might make a hole into the floor below, and then I can get out of this…nightmare.'_

As he scrambled up the chain that dangled from the chandelier (it was lower now that two chains had been severed) Yang noted that, ironic as it was, his chest muscles were now coping much better with the strain of climbing because it had been partially transformed. Risking a glance in Ink-Zekrom's direction he saw him burst out of the cloud of gas with a look of seething anger directed towards him. Gulping, he reached the top, and this time keeping a firm hold on the chandelier, hacked through the third chain.

His stomach dropped as the chandelier swung again and the sound of strained metal sounded throughout the all as the chandelier came to a stop after crashing into the wall of the hall. Unsteadily getting to his feet, Yang was about to hack through the last chain when his left arm was hit by a stream of ink.

_"__It is inevitable." _Ink-Zekrom's voice sounded in his head, strangely haunting.

Unable to keep his balance while still clutching at his burning arm as he felt it shift and change texture under his right hand, Yang fell off the chandelier. Teeth gritted in agony, he saw the creature that had been hunting him approach him through slitted eyes.

_"I__t is your __**destiny**__."_

Frantic, Yang cast his eyes over the scene that lay before him. He took in the form of Ink-zekrom, smiling as his hand began to extend towards him. He saw the chandelier, dangling directly above the pokémon.

_"__Over my dead body!" _Yang yelled in his head, as in a final act of desperation, he hurled his sword at the last chain that held the chandelier up.

Hoping that the blade, and not the handle would connect with the chain.

Hoping that his throw had been strong enough for the already weakened metal to snap.

Hoping against hope...

…

…his aim was true, for there was the sound of metal shattering. The sound stopped the Ink-Zekrom, its eyes wide upon knowing what would happen.

"_Two words for you; Heads up!"_ Yang snickered before scrambling to his feet and bolting away from the center of the floor.

The chandelier, no longer being supported by the outer four chains, was relying on the central chain. It was too much strain for it as the chain, along with its anchor, was ripped from their foundation, sending the two and a half ton decoration plummeting to the floor. Yang ran with all his might, desperate to get away from the impact spot. Ink-Zekrom looked up and brought both arms up over its head in a futile attempt to shield itself.

Yang dived at the last second as the chandelier crashed into the floor, hitting the ink-zekrom dead-on. Shards of glass flew everywhere as the floor buckled and splintered greatly. Not even a couple seconds after the floor sank even lower, showing that it was going to give way to the space underneath. Splinters flew as the floor gave out, sending the pile of metal, glass and wood, along with the demon ink plummeting into the darkness below.

Yang pushed himself up off the floor, albeit slowly due to the falls he had to go through. He swayed a little when fully standing, but was able to regain his balance. He heard a massive crash and looked behind him. He sweat-dropped when he saw that he was right next to the hole from the chandelier. What surprised him were a few shards of glass flying up the hole, slowing when they reached up to the height of his eyes. Gravity took hold and pulled them back down, falling who knows how far down.

"_Finally…"_ he let out a sigh _"…it's over."_

He looked over his body, human mixed with bits of Zekrom. Of the parts that were Zekrom's, he felt that he can try and figure out how to use them since he was out of danger. He slowly glanced back to the turbine tail, now wanting to know how to make it work now that the danger's gone. He closed his eyes and focused on the turbine a bit. Slowly, he heard a soft humming sound coming from it and opened his eyes. The turbine was slowly spinning inside, casting a soft blue glow outwards. He was about to let his focus go but didn't when he noticed that the other transformed parts of him had blue lines glowing on them as well.

_'Well, this is a little weird, but cool at the same time.'_ he smirked.

Releasing his focus, the turbine stopped along with the glowing. Yang looked forward and noticed that he was in front of the wall that Zekrom called 'the exit'.

_'Okay, just how is this the exit?'_ he questioned. _'The only way it could be an exit is if the wall was torn down.'_

While Yang was lost in thought, a small dot of ink slowly rose from the hole. It was followed by another and another until there was a swarm of them.

"_Yang…"_ the ink-Zekrom's voice called out. Yang's eyes shrunk, fear hitting him like a freight train.

"_No…"_ he barely cried out.

"_You have delayed me for far too long. It is time to end this!"_ it bellowed fiercely, making Yang wince.

All at once, the dots of ink zipped towards Yang, but instead of pelting his body, they started to circle him. Yang was rooted to his spot, turning himself trying to find a way out.

"_No."_ he called out, slightly louder this time.

Bits of the ink started to pelt the human parts of his body, making Yang try and shield them with the changed parts to no avail. Even if the ink hit a transformed area, it would just slither along until it reached an unaffected area.

"_No no no no!"_ he yelled, desperation setting in on trying to prevent as much of the changes as possible.

His right arm was covered in the ink, fusing into his skin and altering it to mimic his left arm.

"_NO GOD DAMNIT NO!"_

The ink stung the left side of his back, forming the left wing and covering the rest of his back.

"_NOOOOOO!"_

His legs were the last to be changed as the remaining ink charged at them. Every one that hit stung like a needle as they ate through Yang's clothing and fused to his skin. Dropping to his knees due to the pain his legs were in, he gritted his teeth and tried to get as much of the ink off as he could. No matter where he reached for the ink, it would turn into skin before he could get to it in time.

The pain from the overall transformation was too much for him. He let out a single, agonized roar, then blacked out.

…

He woke up a few hours later, disorientation greeting him. He brought his left hand to it, only to reel back from something else. He opened his eyes and looked at the source, only to remember what had happened. Looking over his body, he remembered the entire event, all the way to the fainting.

_'Great…it won…'_ he said inward bitterly.

Getting up from his spot, he looked around and was doubting he was in the same room he passed out in. Instead of the well lit areas of the ball-room floor, he was standing in a metaphorical skeleton of it; books from the shelves were scattered all around, pages even more so. The shelves themselves were gray from supposed age, the wood rotten and falling apart. The hole where the chandelier fell through was larger than before, effectively cutting the way back off. Dozens of spiderwebs hung from the ceiling, supposedly abandoned by their owners.

_'Whoa…how long was I out?'_

"_You weren't out for however long you think you were."_ the zekrom's voice called out.

-0-

–_Yin–_

Yin, separated from Yang, was walking down the hall he found himself thrown in. He already tried to find a way to open the doors from his end, but found nothing after fruitless minutes of searching. As he proceeded further down the hall, he noticed some pictures hanging on the walls and podiums displaying items. Curiosity peaking, he broke from the path he was following to get a good look at one of them.

The picture he was looking at had a mid-thirties man dressed in Victorian Era clothing, although he had a helmet, along with a monocle with a cross-hair painted on it. He was holding a rifle, although it wasn't any that was normally made.

The trim of the gun was painted gold, with the stock of it made of wood, except there were gears visible through a thin piece of glass. The firing mechanism was like a flintlock, but with several more gears than normal. It had a scope attached, but instead of it being completely straight, it was bent close to the end of it, looking like it would be useless as a sniper rifle. The barrel was painted silver on two-thirds its length, but the middle of it was painted gold.

Yin looked at the base of the photo, and noticed a ribbon attached to it.

'Winner of the annual Long-Shot Competition: Andrew McCarnagy' the writing on the ribbon read.

_'Is this really Andrew?'_ Yin questioned inwardly._ 'How was he able to win a competition with that rifle? Better yet, what kind of gun is that?'_

Looking away from the picture, he looked over to a podium at the other side of the hall. Curious again, he made his way over and got a look at it. Lying on top was a gauntlet with a pair of golden hooked spikes welded to the top of the knuckles.

"Man, Natasha would love these…" he commented.

Looking further down the hall, he noticed that it was a form of museum for these items. He continued down the main path, looking at the various weapons, clothing, and trinkets on display. Included were a shoulder-mounted cannon, various mechanical arms, even a suit of armor based from a popular sci-fi movie series.

"Wow, now I remember what this is; it's Steampunk." Yin said. "Andrew must be a complete nut for this kind of stuff…"

Steampunk, as far as he can tell, is mainly about technology revolved around using steam to operate. It was mainly a theme where 1980 – 90's technology meets the Victorian Era, mainly mixed with fiction or fantasy. One way of indicating it are entire cities being held up by huge, lighter-than-air balloons. Normally, the way to get around said city is by air, which is why most people would own small aircraft, such as a personal dual-bladed helicopter or small hot-air balloon. Nearing the end of the hall, he came upon a pair of doors. They were double the average size, with gears visible through a thin piece of plexiglass. A lever was attached to one of the doors.

"Throwing caution to the wind, lets see what's behind door number one…" Yin muttered, grabbing the handle.

He pulled the handle down, which sent sparks flying upon contact. Yelping in surprise, Yin stumbled back, watching the lever spark menacingly. After watching the sparks fly for a few seconds, they ceased. Another few seconds past with nothing happening. Thinking he broke it, he was about to walk down the hall to find something to open the door until he heard hissing. Turning around he saw steam shooting out of the edges of the door, while every gear in the doors were spinning. Something clicked, echoing down the hall as the doors started to slide apart. Yin was walking towards the now open door, wanting to see what was on the other side. When he got a good look, his jaw started to slack.

Inside was a massive room, themed like a floating steampunk city. Giant balloons were tethered to masses of soil, keeping them airborne spread throughout the room. Small airships and dual-bladed helicopters flew about, each following a route of their own. What looked like clouds on the ground level were actually realistic paintings of clouds to simulate a real cloud-scape. A few automated steampunk vehicles were also driving along the cobblestone roads, some billowing steam as they chugged along. Looking up, he noticed a simulated day-and-night cycle, in which it was currently in the afternoon.

"Daaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmnnn….…" Yin was way beyond impressed on the whole scene. "I take that back, he's absolutely crazy for Steampunk…" He stepped through, trekking over the metal bridge to the first 'floating' island. He noticed a sign hanging from one of the bridge's lampposts, painted the same silver and gold color like some of the exhibits in the hall. On it, it read:

"Welcome to Skyla, where steam and fire keeps the city held high above the clouds!"

"Skyla huh? Hmhm, even went as far as naming it as well." Yin chuckled a little on the effort put into the city. He then continued further down the bridge, stepping onto the cobblestone road of the first city segment.

He was unaware of a small cloud of steam that stuck around after the opening of the door. It zipped to the ground, camouflaged by the painted clouds. It speed along the ground, heading for one of the 'factories' of the area. Flying down one of the pipes, it came across a butterfly hatch that was rusted stuck. It stuck a portion of it out and solidified it into what looked like a metal claw and jabbed it. The hatch flew open, steam gushing out of it and shooting out of the chimney pipe. The pressure of the steam caused the pipe to whistle, catching Yin's attention.

"Heh, even a schedule for the 'workers' to be dismissed." he chuckled, unaware of what was coming.

After a bit of walking (and admiring) Yin walked across another bridge, winding up in the 'commercial' district of the city. Various shops were spread throughout the street, offering a wide variety of goods. One of the shops was a clothing store, while another was a weapons shop.

Deciding to see what would be inside, he entered the weapon shop, opening the door and hearing a little bell ring. Smiling a bit for the 'detail' of the shop, he continued inside, allowing the door to shut. Sitting on a rack were various rifles, pistols, and blades ranging from simple yet stealthy canes, to bulky and powerful arm cannons, from the finger mounted pistol rings, to blades that hide more than one in their design. Looking towards the rear of the shop, there was a doorway marked 'Testing Range' at the top.

Walking through, he looked at a group of stalls lined up, with an empty rack behind them. There was also an open area with a group of test dummies with circular patterns around the floor as well. Figuring the weapons in the main shop were brought here to be tested, he went back and browsed through the selection. He looked closely at the weapons that caught his attention, lifting them carefully off their slots. Of the selected were a copy of gauntlets he seen in the entrance hall, and a blade that folds into a slot running along a persons arm.

Bringing each desired weapon one by one to the testing area, he decided to try the arm blade first. Strapping said weapon on and making sure it was secured, he jolted his arm and the blade swung out of its spot, snapping into place with a handle resting right where Yin's hand can grab it. The blade was golden for most of it, while silver along the blades edge.

"Man, Yang would love this thing." Yin commented, smiling a bit.

Folding the blade back into place, he walked towards the training dummy area, wanting to test the weapon out. When he stepped on one of the circles on the floor though, it depressed and something clicked in the room. Caught off-guard, Yin stumbled forward a bit and got a face full of wood. He fell backwards, landing a bit painfully on his back due to his sword's sheath strapped there.

"Ooowww...…" Yin complained, rubbing his face which was red from the impact.

Looking up, he noticed a log that wasn't there when he first came in. It was a normal log, standing vertically out of the floor. Pulling himself up, he looked at it like it grew a head, wondering on how it got there. Looking back to where he stumbled, he noticed that another one of those circles was pushed into the ground. He shifted his left foot onto it and the pattern dipped further into the ground, clicking when it was far enough. Lifting his foot, the switch shot back up to where it was level with the floor. Shortly after, he heard something hit the ground hard and looked forward. The log that was in front of him was gone, no longer in its place. Figuring out that it was some sort of training mechanism, he let his foot press the switch down again, getting the same click and this time seeing the log shoot out of the ground. The log stood as it was prior to running into it.

Yin readied the arm blade, letting it click into place. After making sure it was good, he held his arm out so that it would cut diagonally, upper right to lower left when swung. He brought his arm over his shoulder and done a quick counter-clockwise spin to add momentum, then sliced right through the log. Initially, it looked like nothing happened, which confused Yin for a moment until the log split, sliding in the same direction of the cut. Landing harshly on the floor, the remainder of the log slid back down into the floor.

"Hmm, scratch that, Yang would try to make this his half of the blade." Yin said, glancing a bit back to his sword.

Folding the blade back into the slot again, he undid the harnesses to the blades sheath. He set it on a table, then strapped on the gauntlets. He looked over at the split log and walked over to it. He lowered himself and hooked the claws to it, checking to make sure they're secure. Picking himself up, he pulled the log with it, although with difficulty due to the weight of it. After struggling for a bit, he was able to get it back up on its remaining flat side and unhook the claws, only for it to slid down through the floor. Jumping back in surprise, he looked at where the log was only to find another one of the circles on the floor.

"Never ceases to amaze me…" Yin muttered, really envious of the whole place.

Taking the gauntlets off, he walked over and grabbed the arm-blade, being careful to not make it swing out. Returning to the main shop, he put the weapons back to their respective places. Yin enjoyed the little demonstrations and exited the shop, returning to the main shopping street.

Around the corner, down a different pathway leading to a small airship dock, the cloud of steam from before hovers above the sidewalk, although much larger due to the steam eruption from the factory. It then started molding itself into the shape of a human. The legs formed first, thinning and forming clothes as well, golden brown checkered patterned pants, with gold stripes running downwards. The feet formed black casual shoes, which it tapped experimentally. The torso followed, forming a tuxedo, mainly black, with a golden brown under-shirt tucked beneath. The head was last, forming the face of a mid-thirties male, with brown ear-tip length hair. The newly-formed human looked over his body, flexing each part to get used to them.

"It's sad that I have to take the form of my deceased friend," it let out a sigh. "but I must hurry with the merging."

Yin walked down the street, head swiveling to look at the various shops in the district. He often interacted with the various devices scattered around, wanting to see what they do. Basically, he was like a kid in a candy store. He was about to walk past another pathway until someone called out to him.

"Amazing, isn't it?"

Slightly surprised that someone else was here, Yin turned to face the speaker. He was even more when he recognized the person from one of the photos he seen.

"Andrew?"

"In the flesh." 'Andrew' replied. He walked over and held out his hand. "It's an honor to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Taking the hand, Yin firmly shook it. "I take it you already know who I am?" he asked.

"Yes, I know. You're Yin Sword, correct?"

"Yeah. By the way, have you seen my counterpart? Looks exactly like me, but color-swapped." Yin asked, in hopes of finding Yang.

'Andrew' shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I haven't seen anyone like your friend anywhere." Yin's shoulders sagged a little in disappointment as Andrew turned around and walked down the pathway he came. "Come, walk with me for a minute."

Walking behind, Yin was worried for Yang. He was hoping that he was alright, seeing that Andrew didn't know where he was. Both people were walking towards the edge of the dock, which Yin was confused as for why they came here.

"Just wait," 'Andrew' told Yin "I made a small bus of sorts here as well."

True to his word, a small airship with half a dozen seats per side flew up to the dock, parking right next to it. No balloons were floating above it, instead strapped to the sides of it, underneath the passenger cabin. Two propellers were in the front and back of it, along with smaller ones two per side excluding where the larger ones were, allowing the ship to change direction when it wanted. Built into the front of the cabin was a panel with numerous dials and switches.

Both Yin and 'Andrew' stepped onto the ship, the former a bit reluctantly and took a seat, while the latter walked to the panel and messed with them for a few seconds. After pulling a final lever, the ship started to move again, pulling out from the dock. Taking a seat, 'Andrew' looked over at Yin to continue talking to him.

"So, how do you like the city so far?"

"How do I like it?" Yin repeated. "I love it! I never thought that steampunk would ever be made into a true city-like reality, but you sir just shattered that doubt." Looking past the edge, he was able to see the skyline of the city, some buildings floating higher than others.

"Well, I'm glad that I was able to make the fantasy become reality."

'Andrew' got up from his seat and walked to the back of the cabin, arms folded behind his back. Yin looked at him, slightly confused, but shrugged and continued to stare at the city.

_'Damnit, this is taking too long.'_ Andrew thought bitterly. _'I have him right there, but yet I have to keep him thinking that I'm Andrew.'_ He lifted his left arm up, examining it. He let out a sigh as it was then shrouded in steam. _'Might as well start. He pretty much has nowhere to run.'_ Letting the steam soak back into his skin, 'Andrew' walked back to Yin, who was still enjoying the scenery. He placed his hand on Yin's left shoulder, who turned his head to look at him.

"I'm glad you like all of my work." he said, readying himself for the steam transfer.

Yin smiled a bit. "Yeah, same. I'm just amazed that something from my dreams has become real." he calmly said, turning his head back to his sight-seeing position.

His hand still on Yin's shoulder, 'Andrew' let steam flow off him and onto Yin's arm, though not touching the skin lest it would alert him too early. The steam formed a sort of shell around his arm, although there were only four fingers on it. A blanket of it trailed behind the arm, resembling a wing of some form. He smirked, knowing that part of the merging is almost complete.

"Hey, you can take your hand off me now…" Yin said, turning his head around. He glanced behind only to see the steam flowing onto his arm. He gasped and jumped from his seat, literally pulling Andrew's hand off his body. Yin gasped upon seeing the hand stuck on his shoulder, but turned into a state of shock seeing that it was severed. The hand turned into steam and flowed down his arm, scaring Yin even more. Pain shot throughout his arm as the steam compressed on it, forming into something else.

Yin tensed his arm to try and stem the pain, but it did little to help and he cried out. He brought his right arm to try and sweep the steam away, but cut that motive when he felt fur instead of skin. He looked at it and his eyes shrunk. His 'arm' was covered in snow-white fur, with more of it trailing behind it. His fingers were now metallic claws, though he now only had four of them, along with a thin plate of metal running across the top of his hand.

Looking back at 'Andrew', the spot where his hand was had steam flowing around it. Figuring that it wasn't the real Andrew, Yin drew his sword with his right hand. He held his blade much like Yang would, leveling it with his arm and in a defensive stance.

"Who are you?" Yin demanded. "Where's the real Andrew?"

'Andrew' shook his head lightly. "Well, no point in keeping his identity anymore."

Steam started to flow around his body, distorting it when there was enough. The steam started to cycle when 'Andrew's' body fully vanished. The arms formed first, forming a duo that were the same as Yin's new left arm, with the fur streaming behind. Strangely though, the fur behind the left arm was missing. Four metallic claws, along with a strip of metal across the upper hands, solidified shortly after, making Yin realize what was forming before him.

"What the…? A Reshiram?" he said, taking a step back, only to bump into the control panel of the ship.

He continued to watch the steam cloud shape itself into the Vast White dragon, forming all the details that Yin was familiar with. From the long, flowing mane down to the tri-clawed feet the body formed, the steam compressing to form the metallic parts. Almost a full minute of the steam shifting, Yin was standing before the Vast White dragon, blue eyes gazing calmly upon him, steam flowing around its body. The noticeable difference was its left arm, the fur making the wing missing.

"_Hello Yin…"_ a calm voice echoed in Yin's mind.

"Huh?" Yin questioned, shifting his eyes around to find the owner of the voice.

"_You do not have to worry about others here, Yin."_ the voice called out again.

_'Wait a second…'_ Yin realized who was speaking to him. "It's you?"

"_Correct."_ the steam-reshiram answered.

Yin lowered his sword, but was still cautious of what could happen. There were a couple of things on his mind that he had to clear up.

"Well, for one, can you tell me where Yang is?" he asked, hoping to finally find his counterpart.

"_Yes, I know where he happens to be. You don't have to worry though, no harm shall come to him."_ Reshiram reassured.

Happy to know that Yang is okay, and where he is, Yin was about to ask where he was before he realized the other question he had.

"Oh yeah, I have to ask." Yin started, raising his changed arm "Why did you make my arm like yours?"

Instead of answering, the steam-reshiram remained silent. Yin was a bit confused on the sudden silent treatment.

"Reshiram?"

This was met with more silence, making Yin suspicious of what the steam-reshiram might do. Shortly after, the steam-reshiram closed its eyes, making Yin try and take a step back, only to bump into the console of the ship again.

"_I'm sorry Yin, but I don't have enough time as is."_ the steam-reshiram said, opening its eyes.

It jumped up a little, then shot full speed at Yin. The latter had barely a split-second to duck, just dodging the possessed steam by centimeters.

_'Oh, crap!'_ Yin thought as he painfully slammed against the floor of the airship. Behind him, the steam-reshiram struck the console that Yin had been standing in front of, and billowed outwards from the point of contact. Yin warily backed away from the swirling white mass until he was on the opposite end of the cabin. He looked over the edge at the canvas-like clouds that lay about 10 meters below the basket.

_'I need to get off this ship. Why is he-'_

Reshiram rushed him. Caught by surprise, Yin took a wild swipe at the steam with his left hand, which had already been transformed, using his wing-like forearm to bat away most of the steam.

Most. What he hadn't managed to blow away darted at his face.

"Argh!" Yin yelled as his vision turned white and his face began to prickle. Instinctively, he jumped backwards...

Only to find himself overbalance and topple over the handrail of the basket.

_'I should land soon, it's only a small fall…why haven't I landed?'_ Yin thought as he fell and his vision began to clear up. As he opened his new eyes, he realized that he had fallen through the faux-painted clouds into the city he had originally seen. His vision had changed. Although everything was sharper and more vivid, there was a light reddish tint to everything. Looking upwards, he saw one of the clouds chase after him.

_'So reshiram is still after me...how the hell am I supposed to survive this fall anyway? I've only got one wing, and I don't even know how to fly…' _Yin thought desperately as the ground approached. Looking down for a soft landing, he realized he was about to land on one of the large monorail-type structures that seemed to help transport cargo all over the city. It was descending at a steep incline, which gave Yin an idea.

_'If I can move a little to the left…I can slide down on it…'_

Angling his arms (and somewhat glad that one of them could actually change his direction quite a bit) towards the rail, he braced himself for impact.

"Oof!" Yin landed on his stomach and wrapped both arms around the rail as he began to slide downwards. Above him, steam-reshiram pursued him relentlessly. When Yin reckoned he was low enough to the ground to survive a drop, he let go and awkwardly tumbled to the ground. Knowing Reshiram was close behind him, he took off down an alleyway, heading for the center of the city where, hopefully, an avenue of escape could be found.

As he ran, breath rasping in his head, he noticed that many of the monorail-like structures were heading in the same direction as him, and that the containers being carried on them were underneath the rails, as opposed to above them.

_'They're like a cross between a cable car and a monorail…'_

Unfortunately, as Yin had been distracted by his surroundings, he didn't notice Reshiram swoop down behind him.

_"Yin, you have to stop running."_ Reshiram said as he reformed himself. Yin started, and took off down towards the city center with a new burst of speed.

_"Dammit Yin! Come back!"_ Reshiram took a swipe at Yin and grabbed onto his right ankle. Pulling Yin back, Reshiram prepared to finish what he had started. However, Yin had other ideas. He pulled his sword out and desperately slashed at the legendary before him. Reshiram was caught by surprise, and immediately diffused back into steam again. This meant that Yin could fall to the ground. Before Yin could begin to run again, he noticed a heavy itching sensation all over his right leg. Looking down in horror, he saw what used to be his leg engulfed in a cocoon of white steam.

"Oh no…" Yin muttered as he staggered down the street, ignoring the conflicting sensations that came from his transforming leg…

Reaching the end of the street, he saw many more monorails, several paths merging into one on various levels. There were abandoned boxes and crates scattered as well, some next to walkways to higher up railways. Yin darted for the nearest flight of stairs, but stopped to look in one of the open crates. Laying inside were devices that would be worn much like a glove, but a metal hook-like end was sticking out of one side. The end had four wide hooks at the tip of it, giving the impression that it latches onto something. The metal on the whole device was gold and silver, much like all high value items. Figuring that it might be useful, Yin snatched one and bolted up the stairs.

"_Yin, please."_ the reshiram's voice called out. _"Don't be afraid of what could be the best gift in your life."_

Feeling that he wouldn't be able to speak, he had to rely on echoing his words in his head. _"How is this a gift, turning me into you?"_ He questioned.

"_I am sorry for forcing this on you, but I myself have no choice. Even your friend is going through this."_

_'Yang, oh man…'_ Yin worryingly thought.

"_I know that as much as you want to stay human, you don't have a choice in this either."_ the steam-reshiram continued. _"I know that it is cruel for me to force this upon you, but I myself cannot stay on this plane of existence for long. It saddens me for making this choice, but both me and my counterpart both want our legacies to live."_

"_But what about us?"_ Yin responded, continuing to climb the stairs and keeping quiet. _"What would happen to us when the changes are complete?"_

"_You will not have to worry about any side-effects."_ the reshiram reassured. _"Even when the physical changes are completed, you will not have to worry about anything happening to your memories. They will stay intact, every piece will remain where they were."_

Even after the explanations, Yin still wasn't feeling confident about the whole thing. As he reached the top level, he looked at the hook device in his hand. He guessed that it was used to ride the rails and decided to try that theory. Slipping the device on, he looked up and noticed a rail within reach. He reached up and hooked the device to the rail. What he didn't expect was the device to suddenly shoot down the rails, pulling him along.

"Ah crap!" he yelled out, just dodging the safety rails of the platform.

The yelling caught the steam-reshirams attention, who was standing at the base of the structure. It looked up and seen Yin panicking as he hung below the rails.

"_Oh damnit Yin! What have you done?"_ it bellowed, taking flight in pursuit.

Yin was hanging onto the device for dear life, not wanting to go through another fall. He looked down and instantly had butterflies in his stomach. There was no ground, only clouds below him. Not wanting to die, he tightened his grip, having to go through the ride. He looked ahead and his eyes widened. The rails ahead would have him going through a sharp, curving dive.

_'Aw crap…'_ he thought, bracing himself for the roller-coaster ride.

As the device hit the decent, it started to speed up, the wind whipping past his face. As he sped downwards, the steam-reshiram was flying far above him, closing the distance. As Yin reached the bottom of the spiral, he looked forward and felt his heart skip a beat. Less than a football field's worth of distance were a set of shipping containers, heading in his direction. Looking behind, he saw the steam-reshiram closing in from behind. Panicking, Yin wasn't sure on what to do, glancing around to find a way out. He looked down again and seen another set of rails directly below, but only after another stomach-churning fall. The rail itself was leading into a different part of the city, probably a commercial/industrial area.

_'Ah crap, what do I do? Splatter? Change? Or drop? Splatter, change, drop?' _He repeated this several times in his head going faster as the former two closed in.

_'SCREW IT, DROP!'_ Yin yelled in his mind, making his choice. He looked up and jolted himself upwards, dislodging the hook from the rail and putting him into a free-fall. He dodged the containers by mere inches while the possessed steam slammed into the containers, exploding when it hit and punching a hole in the front container.

"_HOOOOLLLLLLYYYY FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU-"_ Yin screamed as he fell. The rail was closing in and he held his right hand out, the end of the device spinning like no tomorrow. He was able to hook on, but felt as though his arm was sprained.

Grunting in pain, he brought his left arm over and tried to massage it. As he did though, a container from above just barely missed him, plummeting to the unseen ground below. Sweating for such a close call, he looked up and seen the steam-reshiram reform, then started diving straight at him. He panicked, seeing on how he was a sitting duck just hanging on the rail. He was so focused on it that he didn't realize that the rail had done another dive, speeding him up into the city section.

"_Yin, please stop running."_ the reshirams voice pleaded. Yin was able to focus back to the rail, after seeing a building zip past.

He looked ahead, wanting to see what was ahead. What he got instead, was him flying off a ruined rail and onto the cobblestone road. Gasping out, he tried to land on his feet and slow down from there. Instead of going all the way with his plan, he tripped from the momentum and flipped end over end a few yards. Sliding on his back to a stop, his legs pointing up in a comical matter, he moaned a bit in pain before his legs came back down, the heels slamming onto the road.

_'God…'_ Yin moaned as he picked himself up. _'When will I find the exit of this hellhole?'_

"_You will be able to leave when I have fully merged with you."_ the reshiram's voice calmly echoed in his head.

Yin's eyes widened and looked down the road. Sure enough, the steam-reshiram was standing a couple dozen yards away, arms folded. Despite the pain he was in, Yin quickly drew his sword and took a defensive stance.

"_Reshiram, please." _Yin started to reason, having to use telepathy. _"Why are both you and Zekrom doing this to us?"_

"_It's because we have no choice!"_ Yin's head throbbed from the response, causing him to clutch it and slightly drop to his knees. Taking advantage of the slight distraction, the steam-reshiram started to close the distance between it and Yin. _"If there was time to find other candidates, we would have done so. However, as the years passed, time was running short and we had to find someone."_ The steam-reshiram was less than ten yards away, Yin recovering from the loud mental assault.

When Yin recovered and stood back up, he looked up and seen the possessed steam reaching to grab him. He spun on his heels and tried to run, but was grabbed roughly by the collar of his shirt. Being lifted a little off the ground, Yin started struggling, trying to escape the grip to no avail.

"_Now, lets see if we can get you a tail."_ the reshiram's voice echoed mockingly.

It's cloud-like tail turned to steam and flowed up its body and past its arm, traveling down Yin's back. It didn't change the skin it traveled on, but it started to accumulate at the base of his spine. When all the steam from the tail was present, it compressed, forming the tail and attaching to Yin, who cried out a bit in pain. The reshiram released Yin, who dropped to the street and tried to get back up. The pain from the merging tail however, kept him down, being forced to endure it. As the steam compressed, it pushed past Yins skin, causing him to cry out as it merged with his spine. As it was taking shape, the steam started to form all the features of the original, but on a smaller scale. After it was done, there was a smaller version of the reshiram's tail, scaled down to around a quarter of Yin's size.

Getting back up, Yin felt the weight of the tail and whipped around. Fear was evident on his face, he then turned his attention to the possessed steam. Not wanting anymore changes to happen, he yanked his blade out, holding it with slightly shaky hands. Even though the hook device was still in his hands, he was still able to grip his sword.

"_Yin,"_ the steam-reshiram's voice calmly called out. _"if you just accept this, it will be much easier for both of us."_

"_I don't even want this 'gift'. I just want to get out of here and go home!"_ Yin fired, hands gripping his sword.

"_You will be able to leave when we're finished!"_ Right after that outburst, the reshiram took flight and shot right at Yin.

Time slowed down as Yin looked over the street. He noticed that he was close to a rail station of sorts, just past the broken rails. There were stalls as well, including one with weapons, along with guns, much like the ones Yin seen in the weapons shop. There was a fuel station as well, complete with landing pads for helicopters and airships. He calculated a plan, but it was risky due to the steam's speed without it's tail and the results should his plan be carried through. Time resumed back to normal, the steam-reshiram rocketing towards Yin. sucked in his fear and side-stepped. When doing so, he slashed out, cutting in the the side of the Vast-White pokémon. It cried out as Yin sprinted, going to put his plan into action.

He ran towards the fueling station first, skidding to a stop in front of a small pyramid of airship fuel cylinders. Each of them were around the size of his human leg, and shouldn't be too hard to carry. Keeping a grip on his blade, Yin decided to put his changed left arm to use, using it to pick up the tank. Somewhat ironic, his left arm was significantly stronger than what it was, allowing him to hold it by the top over his left shoulder. Though he could hold it easy, it was still a heavy weight on his body, making him buckle his knees slightly.

_'Right, let's get going…'_ he said to himself, going at a fast jogging pace to get the tank in position.

He looked down the street towards the reshiram and had to duck, just dodging a swipe from the dragon. Instinctively, he dropped the tank and jumped back to dodge another swipe. Trying to regain his balance, the leg difference making it slightly difficult, the reshiram thrust its arm into Yin's chest. Instead of piercing his skin, the hand dissipated and the steam flowed around his torso. Crying out, Yin backpedaled from the creature and tried to brush the steam away with his left arm. It worked to a degree, but the damage was done, his torso was changed to mimic the reshiram's. Sighing in mild defeat, he regained his focus on the current situation. The steam-reshiram's hand reformed, though the wing on its right arm was shorter than normal.

_'It must be running out, considering that I'm almost fully changed.'_ Yin analyzed, readying his blade for another swing as the creature charged.

Dealing another slash and hearing another out-cry, Yin sprinted for the tank he dropped. Grabbing hold, he didn't bother hoisting it over his shoulder, instead spinning a full circle and throwing it. It sailed through the air, landing and shattering some cobblestone near the rail station. He didn't need to watch it come to a stop before he turned to the fueling station again. He ran at it, but had to stop short to avoid a cloud of steam shooting past him. He looked in the direction it went and noticed the steam-reshiram, irritation clearly on its face.

"_The sooner you accept this, the sooner you can leave Yin!"_ it called out angrily.

Yin jumped forward, landing on his stomach in order to dodge another pass. He picked himself up quickly and ran the rest of the distance to the fuel station. Grabbing a second tank, he thought of a risky way of cutting time. Sheathing his sword, he reached over and grabbed a third tank, pulling it off the rack with his arm muscles screaming in pain. He took his mind off the pain and focused on getting the tanks to the station. Putting the one in his left arm on his shoulder, he went as fast as he could, dragging the second tank behind him.

During the sprint, he had to let go of the second tank twice to dodge the steam, then carried on dragging it. When he got to the station, he dropped both then bolted to the gun stall. He reached it in no time and yanked a rifle off without looking at it. He grabbed the materials to make it work, including a bag of gunpowder and pellets. Even though he couldn't focus clearly due to his right arm aching so much, Yin still ran through the entrance of the station, readying the rifle for a single shot. When he ran in, he saw a single cabin waiting at the dock, control panel built in the front end of it. He spun around as he heard a crash outside. Right outside was the steam-reshiram, having Yin cornered in the station.

"_You have nowhere else to run, Yin. All those efforts of running will be futile."_ its voice called out as it started to fly towards the station.

Yin ran through the open doors of the cab, slammed his right hand on the controls to start it up, then knelt down on one knee, aiming the rifle. He knew that he only had one shot, and should he miss, he can kiss his humanity good-bye. Time slowed yet again as he took dead-aim at the trio of fuel tanks, taking in a deep breath to steady his aim. Many things could go wrong during the few seconds that were slowly going by. The doors closed completely, blocking the shot. Yin taking too long to fire. The steam-reshiram getting in the way and blocking the bullet. The odds of hitting were not good, but Yin was hoping he would make the shot.

His finger tightened on the trigger, going all the way until the mechanisms of the gun kicked in, igniting the gunpowder in the barrel and sending the pellet screaming out. It flew through the air, slipping past the narrow crack of the cabin doors. The steam was nearing the tanks, as was the bullet. Closer and closer the bullet neared, until…

…contact.

The bullet pierced the outer shell of the tank, sparking as it did. Fuel immediately started shooting out and upon contact with the spark, ignited. It seeped into the main tank, exploding and catching the other two, forcing them to explode as well. Time resumed and Yin was thrown off his feet from the explosion, slamming into the wall of the cabin behind him, landing on his side as all the windows of the cabin shattered. The explosion consumed the steam-reshiram, leaving no trace of it behind. The supports for the entrance gave out, collapsing the entryway of the station. The cabin started with a small jolt, then chugged along the rails, leaving the burning husk of the station behind.

Groaning, Yin pushed himself back up, right arm numb from the pain and sat on the floor.

_'Finally…I got away from it…'_ he said to himself.

He let out a sigh and looked his body over. The majority of his body was reshiram's while the only remaining human parts were his right arm and left leg. It was when he looked at his right arm did he realize that he had the hook device on the entire time and didn't know. He grabbed hold of the glove the device was attached to and slipped it off, freeing his human hand. A small breeze from the movement of the cabin came in and blew the fur on Yin's left arm. He looked at the fur then lightly grabbed it with his right hand.

The feel of the fur felt amazing to the touch for him, and he folded his arms, the fur brushing against more of his human skin.

_'Hmm…almost like my whole self's grandma's blanket…'_ he happily thought, lightly hugging the fur as well.

He had a tugging feeling at the back of his mind, like he forgot something important, but shrugged it off as he continued to hug the fur. A few minutes later, the cabin he was riding in came to a light stop, indicating that he arrived at a different station. He picked himself up and walked out the now-open cabin doors, stepping onto the wooden platform of the docking station. He looked out and he could see in the distance the smoke from the previous station fire. He sighed, wondering on how he'll get out of the city. He turned around and walked out of the station, finding himself in a small park of sorts, complete with a few playgrounds as well. He slowly walked along the paths, going in no particular direction.

Unknown to him, a small cloud stayed out of his sight, drawing more clouds into it.

_'Just how am I going to get out?'_ he questioned inwardly. _'I can't go back the way I came for obvious reasons.'_

He let out another sigh and stopped walking a bit. He looked over his body again and even looked back to his tail. Figuring that he was safe, he closed his eyes and focused a little on how to operate it. After a few seconds, he felt heat building up around him. He opened his eyes and noticed that some of the cloud-like fur in his tail was glowing red, along with the tips of his claws and mane as well.

_'Huh, isn't this something.'_ he thought. _'Still, how am I going to convince Yang, if I find him, that it's me when I'm like this?'_

Letting his focus go, the heat and glowing faded, returning to their normal white color. Yin was about to continue walking until he heard a dreadfully familiar voice.

"_Yin…"_ it called out. Yin felt as though his heart skipped a beat in fear.

"_No, but I thought…"_ Yin barely cried out.

He turned around to see a mass of cloud and steam rushing at him. It didn't hit him, instead cycling around him, leaving no escape. Yin reached behind him for his sword, only to grab air.

"_What the-? My sword! Where is it?"_ he panicked.

He was turning himself, looking for an exit. All he could see was the steam surrounding him. He felt a burning sensation on his left foot and looked down then gasped. The steam was covering and changing his foot. Panicking, he swept his left hand over it, trying to get it off. It didn't help as the steam that clung to his hand slithered along until it found human skin, in which it changed. Crying out, Yin tried prevent as much steam from reaching him as possible as it started to close in.

"_Reshiram please! Don't do this!"_ Yin pleaded, growing desperate in finding a way out.

The response was steam covering his right hand. His hand burned as it was changing, shifting from the steam. Yin gripped his hand with the other and dropped to his knees, trying to get it off. This was the wrong thing to do, since more steam rushed at him, covering more of his body, spreading the burning over his whole body. Unable to take the heat and the pain as well, Yin let out a single, agonized scream, then fell unconscious.

…

Drifting back to consciousness, Yin opened his eyes to semi-darkness. Groaning, he picked himself up, swaying a little and brought his hand up to his forehead. After doing so, he opened his eyes and looked himself over. He noticed that his right arm and left leg were no longer human, taking the appearance of the one responsible for his transformation. Tears welled up in his eyes, distraught over the changes.

_'Why…? Why did it do this to me?'_ he whimpered.

Looking up, he was wondering on where he was. Instead of the lush, green park he was standing in, he was surrounded by dead grass and trees, with the skeletons of crashed airships in the ground as well. Looking behind, he seen that there weren't any more airships in the sky, nor any portions of the city. The rail, rusted from an undefined amount of time, has collapsed, with a rail-cabin hanging onto the edge of it.

_'What the…How long…?'_ Yin muttered, confused on the city's crumbling state.

"_There is nothing to worry about when it comes to time, Yin."_ the reshiram's voice echoed calmly.

-0-

–_Aftermath: Yang–_

"_What do you mean I wasn't out for however long?"_ Yang questioned.

"_Before both you and your friend were invited here, the mansion we stand in was empty, crumbling, abandoned."_ zekrom explained. _"When we heard that both of you were coming, we had to use our energy to make the mansion what it was prior to its decay. We couldn't, however, make everything as it was, and as such, some signs of decay lingered."_

"_You mean the bookshelf that collapsed easily?"_

–_Yin–_

"_And the ruined rails?"_ Yin asked.

"_Correct."_ Reshiram answered. _"If we had covered every inch, then we wouldn't have had enough energy to merge with you, and as such, vanish. When we have fully merged, we let go of the restoration, letting the mansion return to its skeletal state. What you are standing in is what the area looked like before the restoration."_

"_But, another thing though…"_

-0-

"_What about Andrew? The person who invited us?"_ Yang questioned.

"_Ah, Andrew. How that name brings back memories. I don't know where he is currently, but I feel that he is roaming the halls of the mansion. Yes, he did invite you, but he, like us, is a spirit and has been for several years. Yet, despite the spiritual barrier, he still wanted to see you both in person and was able to write that invitation. Shortly after he was done, the letter was whisked away, going to where you were before this all started."_

-0-

"_Yet, it was after you both arrived did we realize on how little energy we had remaining. Around the time we restored the mansion, that action put us critical levels, forcing us to seek you out to merge."_

"_I see…But, what happens now, since the changes are complete?"_ Yin asked.

-0-

"_Since I have finished merging with you, you're free to go. However, I need to use the last bit of my energy to open the way."_

Yang was about to ask what he meant, but felt himself lose control of his body. He panicked, thinking that it was a trick just for the zekrom to gain control of his body. However, he watched through the eyes as zekrom charged the turbine, casting the blue glow everywhere. The arms reared back, electricity jumping from them as they charged up an attack. A few seconds later they shot forward, sending the charges straight at the wall. They both impacted, shattering the stone and sending bits of it flying, as well as throwing up a dust cloud. The pebbles that did hit him simply bounced off, not doing any damage. Yang felt himself regain control of his body and shut down the turbine, putting the area back in darkness.

-0-

In his mind, Yin heard the rashiram breathing hard, utterly exhausted. He watched as the building hit by the flames burn, rapidly collapsing as smoke billowed from it. However, as quickly as the building collapsed, the flames started to die just as fast.

"_There…It is…done…"_ the reshiram breathed out. _"The way…is now open…However…I have used…up the last of my energy…in doing so…"_

"_Wait, does that mean…?"_ Yin started.

"_Yes, it means that…I can no l…longer stay…"_ Reshiram finished. _"Farewell Yin, for…we will never meet…a…g…a…i…n…"_ it trailed off.

Yin felt the presence of the reshiram leave his mind, forever gone. Even though he was changed against his will, Yin felt saddened on how it's life was like prior to him coming.

-0-

Shaking his head slightly, Yang looked forward, spinning the turbine again to get some light. The dust cloud has mostly settled, allowing him to see past it. Standing in front of him were doors similar to him being thrown through. The difference was that the gold was chipped and the silver rusted in spots. He was doubting that he would be able to open the door, especially with it in such poor condition. He shrugged and walked towards it, holding a hand out. His hand touched the door and he gave a light shove. The door opened easily instead of staying shut, revealing the lobby of the mansion in a similar condition.

_'Man, he wasn't kidding when he said the mansion was dead…'_ Yang thought as he stepped through, being careful of fallen marble and wood.

-0-

Yin was able to make his way through the rubble of the building. The wood was lit with embers from the now gone flames, emanating a little heat, yet it didn't bother him. He pushed his way to the door slightly buried in the rubble. He reached it and easily pushed the rubble aside, clearing the door. He walked up to it, taking in the details. Letting out a small sigh, he placed a hand on it, and gave it a push. The door didn't budge and he had to put more force onto it, slowly opening it.

-0-

Yang was looking around while standing in the center of the lobby when he heard a door creak. Snapping his attention to the source, he was surprised to see a reshiram standing in an open doorway. He was about to question it until he remember what Zekrom told him. He didn't believe him at first, but was now after seeing the counterpart.

"_Yin?"_ he called out, wanting to confirm his suspicions.

The reshiram jolted a little then looked towards him, eyes wide.

"_Yang?"_ it responded, answering Yang's questions.

"_Oh my god, Yin!"_ Yang cried out, quickly making his way through the debris.

Yin started making his way through the debris as well, continuing until they both came together in a tight hug. They both held each other, Yin silently sobbing a little, until they separated and looked at each other.

"_So, Zekrom got to you as well?"_ Yin asked.

"_Same with Reshiram for you?"_ Yang asked as well.

"_Yeah…"_

They both stood there, telling each other on what happened during their little adventures. They hugged one last time, then started making their way to the front door. Before they could reach it though, a voice called out to them.

"Hey Reshiram, Zekrom! Where you going?" it called out.

Both humans-turned-pokémon turned around and seen someone, a spirit to be precise, standing a few yards away. Yin recognized the person immediately while Yang raised a non-existent eyebrow.

"_Andrew? That you?"_ Yin asked.

"Of course it's me Reshiram." Andrew answered, slowly walking towards the duo oblivious to what had happened. "I just can't shake the feeling that something's off about you two." he stated, putting a hand to his chin. "For one, how are you both at almost my height?"

Both of them gulped and nervously looked at each other.

"_Um…"_

"Never mind."Andrew interrupted. "Anyway, look at what I found while I was roaming around earlier." He reached behind his back with both hands and grabbed hold of something. He pulled them back out and what he held made Yin and Yang mentally gasp. In his hands were both of their blades, somehow in their scabbards.

"Cool huh? I found the black one in the library and the white one in the city. I don't exactly remember having these blades, but I think they would go nice with my collection."

"_Um, Andrew?"_ Yin asked, a little uneasy for the coming explanation.

"Yeah?"

"_We need to talk."_ Yang bluntly said.

"Huh? About what?" Andrew asked, arcing an eyebrow.

"_For one, we're not the reshiram and zekrom you know."_ Yang deadpanned.

"Huh?"

"_He's right. If you were here a few hours earlier, you would've been able to meet us before we became what we are now."_ Yin explained.

"Wait, are you saying that–?" Andrew asked but was cut off.

"_Yes, I'm Yin Sword and this is Yang Sword."_ Yin introduced, gesturing to himself and Yang.

Andrews eyes grew wide, dropping the swords as he took a few steps back in shock. He relaxed, but tilted his head to the ground, no longer in shock, but feeling empty on the inside.

He didn't do anything when Yang came over and picked up the swords. Yang, after slinging his sword over his back, though with difficulty, he tossed Yin his sword. After getting his sword over his shoulder with less difficulty, Yin looked over towards Andrew. Guilt started to well up, seeing that even though he was a spirit, the pokémon he and his counterpart were turned into were the only company he had. He walked over to him, Yang giving him a questioning look as he passed, and put a hand – or tried to – on Andrew's shoulder. Said spirit looked up into Yin's eyes, wondering on what was going on.

"_Hey, I know that you're sad that your friends did this to us, but they had no choice, and neither did we."_ Yin calmly said. _"They had to do it, and I guess they left you in the dark about what was happening to them. They probably didn't let you know so you wouldn't worry about them as much."_

"But…I thought that…" Andrew started but stopped, unable to find the words.

"_Andrew, I feel bad about what they done, but think of what would've happened if they didn't change us." _Yin continued. _"They would've have faded into nothing if they didn't get to us in time, and you would've been devastated upon learning what happened to them."_

"Yeah…" Andrew spoke. "But, what happens now? Will you two go back to where you came from, or will you stay here?" he asked afterward.

Yin nervously looked over to Yang, who had a semi-concerned look on his face. He closed his eyes, trying to figure out on what to do. He wanted to go back, but yet he doesn't want to leave Andrew alone here for who knows how long until he passes on. Those were the two options, but yet he had a third one. It was a long shot, but he had to try.

"_Andrew…"_ Yin started, opening his eyes again.

"Yes?" Andrew asked.

"_Though we do want to go back home, I'm just not sure about leaving this place…"_ Yin trailed off, glancing back at Yang.

"_Yin, mind telling me what you're thinking?"_ Yang questioned, though keeping the question to his counterpart only.

"_Well, I do have something, I'm just not sure if he would accept it or not."_ Yin stated, turning back to Andrew.

"_Andrew, even though that this is your home, despite its condition, I am wondering if…"_ he trailed off.

"If what?" Andrew pressed.

"…_if you would like to…come back with us. To the studio, I mean."_ Yin somewhat uneasily finished.

Andrew just stood in his spot, running the request again in his head. Shortly after, he crossed his arms and closed his eyes, a grin starting to form.

"Heh, well why didn't you say so?" Andrew answered, reopening his eyes while his grin grew wider.

This caught the duo off-guard, not expecting the answer given. Still, despite this, Yin was able to talk first.

"_Well, in all honesty, we weren't expecting that kind of answer, but it seems that you're eager to go."_ Yin said.

"Indeed I am. Even though that this is my house, I've been wanting to see whats been going on the whole time I was stuck here."

"_So, guess that means we can finally head back?"_ Yang questioned.

"_It does."_ Yin started, looking back at his counterpart. _"However, even when we get back home and to full strength, I'm not sure if we can reverse the changes."_

"_What do you mean? We're stuck like this?"_

"_Not entirely. Even though we may not make our human forms our default, we can do what the others can; make ourselves appear normal."_

"_Great, now we're going to be like Teresa and the Luck duo…" _Yang mumbled bitterly.

Yin rolled his eyes then turned back to Andrew. _"So, are you sure you want to come with us? It may probably be the last time that we come back here."_

Andrew got into a thinking pose, weighing the options he had. It was pretty much a simple – if not drastic – change.

"I'm positive. Besides, I kinda have nothing else of value here since they've all decayed." Andrew answered with a slight shrug at the end.

"_Okay, just wanted to make sure that you were okay with leaving and never returning."_Yin replied. He turned around and walked towards the front door of the mansion, Yang and Andrew following. The duo had to step around bits of debris at times, while Andrew just floated past it. A few minutes later, they came up to the massive doors, though in a slightly worse condition than the side ones. There were more spots of rust, and the gold was almost non-existent, along with chunks of the wood missing. The duo each walked to one side of the door, wanting to open it and finally leave. After getting into position, they both pressed their hands on the doors and pushed with all their might. Slowly, but surely, the doors started to open, letting the morning light dawn pour in. After they were open enough, the two let up and walked out, Andrew following not far behind.

"_Finally! We are out!"_ Yang almost cheered, only to get a smack against the back of his head. _"OW! Yin! What was that for?"_

Yin's answer was a roll of his eyes, then he turned back to Andrew yet again.

"Wow…quite a bit I missed huh?" he asked.

"_Yeah. Just wait until we get back home."_ Yin answered. He then started holding his arm-wings out, looking at them. _"Now the thing is; How can I be able to fly?"_

Andrew chuckled at the question, earning a look from the duo. "It should be like that of a bird. Just focus on flying, but focus on the tail to help out. They can act like jet engines as well. The tails can help in long-distance flying, since they can really cut travel times."

"_Huh, well then…"_ Yin trailed off, turning around. _"Let's see if that works."_

Yin closed his eyes and focused on flying, letting his mind 'experience' flight. He slowly moved his arms up and down, miming flight. After a few repetitions, he suddenly opened his and swung his arms down, forming a cloud of dirt, blinding Yang and Andrew. After it settled, Yin wasn't in his spot, instead he was hovering over it.

"_Whoa whoa, WHOA! I'm flying?"_ Yin questioned, a smile forming on his snout. _"Yeah I'm flying! WOO!"_ he called out excitedly, doing a flip in the air to prove it.

"_Hey, if it's that easy, let me have a go."_ Yang said, eager to fly as well. He repeated what Yin did, except with the wings on his back. A minute later he was flying as well, a grin on his face. _"Heck yeah, already I'm loving this!"_ he called out, letting out a roar to prove it.

"_Okay, since we can fly, lets see if we can get back to where we can warp."_ Yin stated, turning himself towards where they first came.

"_Hey, race ya there Yin. Last one there has to polish both our blades!"_ Yang challenged, taking off.

"_Hey! No fair!"_ Yin yelled back, taking after him.

Andrew just chuckled at them, then took flight himself and sped off after them.

–**Later that day…–**

Ask the Characters Studio

The duo were hosting a show for the day, though in their human forms. After they arrived, they found out that they couldn't reverse the changes and as such, had to make illusions of themselves appearing normal. Everyone in attendance was there as well, oblivious to their changes. Andrew, upon arrival, was spectating from the sidelines, enjoying everyone's reactions to some questions. Though he left his house for good, he was glad of the changes he accepted.

-0-

**Holy mother of god, this took almost half a year to write. Laziness and writer's block from hell is the reason why this took so long. I'm sorry if it felt rushed at the end, but since it's Christmas, I decided to finally finish this and get it posted before the day ended. As such, here's my Christmas gift to you all.**

**Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!**

**NanoCarp: It's been a long time coming guys but it's finally done. Me and Aleron's Sword worked real hard on this. Okay mostly Al, but we worked with him every step of the way. I'm glad we finally finished this one, I hope everyone enjoys it.**


	11. Day 5: Preparation

**Technically the eleventh chapter, but tenth in terms of the show. Two more characters, along with a full list of guest-stars are coming. No theme will be taking place during this.**

**And those who are asking if the omakes have any effect on the show; no, they do not. Like the name means, those are merely bonus chapters. I stated it at the top of the chapter, and any events that happen in them will _not_ carry over.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, or any major company brands. I own only the story and the OC's. Any characters other than mine belong to their owners.**

-0-

_Ask the Characters_

_Chapter 10: Day 5 Preparation_

Yang, still in the infirmary after yesterday's…incidents…during the show, slept rather comfortably on the medical mattress. Yin though, after getting his nose fixed, slept in Sword's room, which was pretty much his.

As the sun rose, the light shone on Yin's face, stirring him from his slumber. He slowly opened his eyes, revealing gray/white eyes and yawned, making his body sit up as well. When full sitting up, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and swung his legs over the side. He stood to his full height, still rubbing his eyes and walked towards the closet.

Opening it, he looked inside and noticed something; when he was whole, there were black and white patterned shirts. Instead, there were separate colored shirts, one half of the closet had white clothes while the other had black.

_'Huh, must be able to tell when something happens to me…'_ Yin thought, reaching in and pulling out one of the white shirts.

It wasn't entirely white, having a 'whited out' version of one of his whole shirt. Instead of whole sections black, there were only black lines with white filling in. Even the blades on them were altered.

_'Okay, I'll admit that that's a little cool.'_ Yin thought as he slipped the shirt on.

After pulling it down fully, he reached in and grabbed a pair of white jeans. Pulling them up and buttoning them, and grabbing his sword from the bed, he walked over for the next part of the day; checking for invitation requests by e-mail. Powering the computer, he clicked the link to his inbox and started reading the new bits of info.

There were two requests from a couple of minor authors, but the third really caught his attention. The profile pic of the received e-mail was enough for him to tell who it was from.

_'Wait…I sent an invite to EC?'_ he thought as he looked through the letter and what was past it. _'I must have forgotten due to the blood loss last night…'_ Said person had all the details filled, but before Yin could read what EC had planned for his author door, the door to the room slammed open. Yin jumped slightly and turned around in the chair, looking to see who it was.

Standing at the door, holding a hand over the privates due to minor spikes, was Yang, sword over his left shoulder.

"Yang? Aren't you supposed to be in the infirmary?" Yin asked.

"Hey, much as I like to, erk!" Yang started, but winced due to a pain spike, "Like to take time to heal, I don't exactly want to miss out on the show." He walked (slightly limped more like) over to where Yin was and looked past him.

"So, whacha doin?" he asked, eyes moving as he read the screen.

"Well, currently going through the e-mail for today. Got a couple of requests, along with one from EC." Yin answered.

"Huh, that so? In that case…" Yang reached over and grabbed the mouse.

"Uh, Yang? What are you doing?" Yin questioned.

Yang ignored as he scrolled over to the requests and clicked 'accept' for all of them.

"Dude!" Yin called out. "Not cool man! I needed to read them!"

"Heh, like you would say, the more the merrier. Heh heh he-OOMPH!" Yang chuckled but was cut off by a light swift punch by Yin in the stomach.

"Hey, be lucky I didn't aim for the 'soft' spot." Yin commented as he got up and walked to the closet. "Anyway, get dressed. Gonna have a pretty busy show today, and I have you to thank for part of it."

Yin left the room, closing the door so that Yang can have his privacy while getting dressed. He let out a small sigh and walked down the hallway, hands in the pockets. Several things were going through his head, one of which is if he can be able to prevent Yang from mauling Natasha, or the other way around. Another is if he could become whole again, merging with Yang. He was so focused that he didn't hear the sounds of a couple of children coming.

-0-

"Sarah! Get back here!" the older boy yelled.

"Come on Michael, lighten up. I'm just looking around!" Sarah called while looking back.

"And that worries me. You're always up to something." Michael replied.

The duo, Michael and Sarah Luck, were in their Lati forms, with Sarah zipping down the halls with Michael in pursuit. Upon arriving, Sarah grew excited and took off, catching Michael off-guard but was able to give chase.

"Seriously Sarah, stop or you'll hurt yourself!" Michael called out.

Before his sister could reply though, she ended up plowing into an unsuspecting Yin from behind, causing Sarah to lose her focus on flying and sending both her and Yin tumbling down the hall. Sarah was able to stop herself and provide a soft stopping post for Yin as well.

"Oooowww…" Yin moaned, picking himself up while massaging his back.

"Sarah!" Michael called out, rushing over to his sister after shoving Yin out of the way. "Are you okay?" he asked right after.

"Brother, I'm okay." Sarah dully said, levitating herself again. "I just didn't see that person in front of me." she pointed to Yin, who was getting back up from the shove.

Michael glared at Yin, anger evident on his face. He started to advance towards him, intent on mauling him.

"Just who do you think you are, hurting my sister?" he growled, venom almost dripping from his voice.

"M-m-michael, easy there. I-" Yin started, but was cut off.

"How do you know who I am?" Michael demanded, his claws now glowing.

"Brother, stop!" Sarah called out, flying between her brother and Yin. "Snap out of it! He didn't mean to!"

"Sarah. Move." Michael ordered in a low tone.

Sarah, instead of moving out of the way, moved towards Michael and embraced him in a hug. Michael gasped, but relaxed and returned the gesture.

"Brother…" Sarah whispered into Michael's ear.

"Yeah?"

"You don't have to be so protective of me."

Michael was able to snap out of his 'protective' mood and hugged Sarah even tighter.

"Aw, how touching." a female voice called out. "It makes me want to vomit."

Sarah and Michael's eyes grew wide a little and turned towards the source. Standing at the end of the hall, with folded arms, was Natasha.

"Way to ruin the mood Natasha." Yin said, sweat-dropping.

"Yeah, nice going." Yang called out, walking down the hall fully dressed, though still slightly limping.

"Tch, not like I was going to stand around and let it continue anyway." Natasha scoffed.

Before someone could speak again, a cloud of purple smoke drifted into the hall, staying close to the floor. Everyone looked down and reacted in a way, with Sarah and Michael floating higher, while Yin, Yang, and Natasha stepped onto something above the cloud.

"The hell is this?" Natasha questioned.

"That, would be one of the people that would guest-star today." Yin explained as the purple smoke started to stack.

The smoke started to form a shape as all of it pushed upwards, turning a gray color on the outside of it. When all the smoke was together, the smoke solidified, revealing a door the same color as it, with the word 'PIURPLE' painted on it. The door then opened, revealing a young teenager wearing a green hooded jacket. The zipper wasn't zipped all the way up, showing a sky-blue t-shirt underneath. He also wore tan shorts that reached below the kneecaps, with a few odd patches of purple as well.

The door closed and turned back into smoke, dissipating as well as the person looked around and noticed the looks from the people and pokemon given to him.

"Hey guys, hope I'm not too late for the show." the person greeted.

"Nah, you're just on time. ShinyMew112, correct?" Yin answered, stepping down from his spot.

"Yup, that's me." the person, ShinyMew, answered. "But you can just call me Shiny, to make things simple."

"Alright." Yin simply said, now fully down from his spot. "Well, allow me to welcome you to the show. The two lati are Michael and Sarah Luck, a Latios and Latias respectively." Yin introduced the duo, the latter waved happily while Michael wasn't sure of the newcomer. "Here's Natasha, I think you already know her since…yesterdays…events." Yin hesitantly said.

No sooner than he said that he received a roundhouse kick to his back, sending him flying headfirst into one of the walls. He got stuck in it, his arms and legs bent like that of an animated character, slightly twitching ever so often. Everyone gasped – eyes wide for Natasha – at the event and turned toward the source of the kick, which turned out to be Yang, his foot smoking.

"Yin, even though we're the same person," Yang started, putting his foot down, "I do _NOT_ want that brought up so long as I'm alive." he finished with gritted teeth in a dark tone.

Yin's response was him slowly raising a hand and giving a thumbs up sign, before he started trying to pull himself out. Michael and Sarah flew over to him and tried pulling him out while Shiny was keeping a bit of distance between him and Yang.

"What's going on here?" they all heard Marcus call out. "I heard a massive crash and – whoa! What happened here?" he questioned after seeing the Luck duo trying to pull Yin out.

"Let's just say, don't bring up anything that brings bitter memories for Yang." Natasha casually answered, walking past him.

After she walked past, she spotted a small green rod drop from the ceiling in front of her. She lightly leaped to the side, allowing the rod to bounce to the area between Yang and Natasha and the rest of the group present. Everyone minus Yin, who was still trying to pull himself out, stared at the strange item as it came to a stop in the center of the space.

"Hang on… … …is that…?" Yang questioned, squinting his eyes to get a better look at the rod, which was starting to glow a brighter green. Realization flashed through him, knowing what it was.

"Oh s**t! It's a uranium rod, and it's unstable!" he yelled out. "QUICK! MICHAEL, SARAH, THROW UP SOME SHIELDS! I'LL GET NATASHA AND MARCUS!" he ordered.

Something clicked in his mind and he quickly pulled out his blade. He then stabbed it into the floor and drew a wide circle around him, Natasha, and Marcus, whom he navigated around, before slamming the handle of the blade into the center of it. A dark shield erupted from the lines, covering the three of them, along with another, teal-colored shield from Michael and Sarah. No sooner than when both shields went up the rod violently exploded, leveling the walls, somehow freeing Yin from his spot. Not even a second after, all the debris froze in its place, suspended in midair. Everyone looked in awe at the scene, wondering on what was going on as well.

As if time was rewinding itself, the debris started flying back into its spot, the explosion compressing into a form. When all the debris was back in its place, the explosion had taken shape of a door with several symbols on it. One was a fireball, another was an orb of electricity while a third was a snowflake. There were many other kinds of symbols showing elements, but they all vanished when the door started to open.

As the door opened, it revealed a mid teen-aged male, with black hair and brown eyes, along with decently tan skin. A blue hooded jacket almost hid his red t-shirt, with the zipper just below the top. A pair of blue framed glasses rested on top of his head. The lower half of his body was covered with blue jeans, with a pair of brown shoes as well. After he stepped fully out and closed the door, which turned into smoke after, he looked among the group of people.

"Huh, you guys look like you've seen a ghost or something." he said in a slightly cheerful tone.

After his shield dissipated, Yang was the first to answer.

"Well if you didn't decide to try and nuke the studio, we'd be fine!" he yelled, raising his blade and walking towards the new person.

The newcomer didn't even flinch when Yang was right in front of him with his blade held in his face.

"You're Yang, correct?" he asked, not even showing a sign of nervousness to the blade.

"Yeah, and who are you?" Yang questioned, still holding his blade to the persons face.

The newcomer just chuckled slightly, earning an arced eyebrow from the swordsman.

"Don'tcha recognize me? I'm EC, the Element Commander." the teen, EC, said with a grin.

"Wait…" Yang muttered. The name clicked and his eyes grew wide. "EC? HOLY S***!" he yelled after, sheathing his blade with almost lightning speed.

"Oi, language! There's a child here ya know." Yin called out, holding his head.

Yang just ignored him and grinned widely. "EC, I'm surprised that you decided to come."

"Of course, I was invited here anyway."

"You were?" Yang questioned.

Instead of getting an answer after, he received a smack to the back of his head, making him cross-eyed from the impact. When he looked back, he saw Yin standing behind him.

"Yeah, he was invited, thanks to you." Yin said in a stern tone, then turned to EC. "Yeah, I was going to sent a confirmation for the invite, but Yang here did so before I could. Same for Shiny," he pointed at said person, who waved. "And Okami Saphira as well."

"Guess things are going to be interesting then?" Shiny asked.

"Yeah, that they will. Now, I think we should proceed to the stage…" Yin started, but clutched his head. "…after I get a bag of ice first…" he finished, walking down the halls. "I'll be with you guys shortly. Yang will take you to the stage." he called out.

Everyone turned to face Yang, who looked at everyone present. He let out an irritated sigh shortly after, then spoke. "Fine, might as well take all of you to it." He then walked past Marcus and Natasha, with everyone else following.

As the group proceeded down the halls, EC was talking with Marcus and Shiny, while Michael was keeping an eye on Natasha, who was hiding a small grin on her face. Sarah tried to wander off a few times, but was called back my Michael before she could slip away. Along the way, Natasha was able to sneak away from the group after seeing a door labeled 'Character gifts'. After rummaging through the room for a bit, she found a bag of one of the items that was given to her from a previous show and hooked the bag to her waist. She then rejoined the group, just as they approached the ever-familiar pair of doors leading to the stage. Standing in front were Teresa, Aleron and Lucas, who was sitting on Aleron's cannon limb, having got used to him by now.

Teresa was the first to notice the group. "Huh? Oh hey Yang. Who are the new arrivals?" She asked after turning to face the group.

"Right, the two lati" he pointed to the Luck duo first, "are Michael and Sarah Luck. The blue-hooded teen is EC, the Element Commander, and the noob in purple ("Hey!") is ShinyMew112, or just Shiny."

"**Hang on, **_**the **_**Element Commander?**" Aleron questioned.

"Yup, that's me." EC answered with a grin.

"Wasn't his Reviews to the Smashers the inspiration to this show?" Teresa asked Yang.

"Yeah, he is." he simply answered.

The group of people and pokemon made their way through the double doors, walking through the open area of the stage and each went to their seats. Before they could, a beam of light from the dome shifted itself to the center of the area between the seats, causing everyone to back away. Michael got in front of Sarah protectively, gritting his teeth for the potential threat. Natasha also stepped back, drawing a knife and holding it in a battle-ready position.

"Sword, the hell's going on now?" she demanded.

"Had to guess, that's Okami Saphira now." Yang answered with folded arms.

After he spoke, the beam of light intensified, becoming almost blinding to look at directly. Everyone either shielded their eyes or squinted them to see what was happening. When the light faded, there was another door, though on the floor was a symbol of the sun. The door was golden in color, with another sun symbol etched on it as well. The doorknob turned as the door opened, revealing a mid-teenaged female with white hair reaching her neck. She wore a blue colored shirt, with equally blue colored jeans. She also had red markings at various points on her body and clothing. The door closed behind her and faded while the teen looked around. When she seen the group, Natasha wielding her knife and Michael growling, she jolted a little and took a step back.

"Um, s-sorry if I'm intruding," she spoke in a shy tone "but is this the…uhm…the Ask the Characters studio, right?"

"Yeah, it is, so don't worry." Yin called out, now returning with a bag of ice on his head. He made his way through the group and walked up to the newcomer. He held out his hand in a greeting gesture. "Oka–"he started but had his mouth clamped shut by the teen, surprised on the speed of her.

"Please, just Frost will do. I just don't want other people finding out." the teen, Frost, shyly explained.

"Gotcha." Yin said, though muffled, along with a thumbs-up.

Frost took her hand off of Yin's mouth, then stepped back. When she did, there was the sound of doors opening and everyone turned to look. The camera crew was arriving, showing that the show as about to start.

"Oh! Places everyone, show's gonna start in a few minutes!" Yin called out, heading backstage for something. Before he could though, he stopped beside Michael and Sarah. "Hey, you can make yourselves appear human, if you want."

"Really?" Sarah asked happily.

"Yeah, all that you have to do is focus on your human selves, then you'll appear as such. You can stay as you are if you wish." Yin explained, then proceeded past the doors.

Deciding to give it a try, Sarah remembered on what she looked before her transformation and focused on it. A few seconds later, her image distorted until there was a young girl floating in her space. When she opened her eyes, she dropped to the ground, letting out a little yelp when she landed. Michael gasped and flew to her, helping her up to her feet. When she was up to her feet, Sarah looked her body over, then started cheering.

"Yay! It worked it worked!" she yelled, jumping up and down as well.

"Wait, if that works, then let me have a try." Michael said, closing his eyes as well. His body followed a similar path of Sarah's, forming a young teen boy when finished. He landed on his feet when he opened his eyes, then started looking himself over as well.

As the two were enjoying the changes, EC was talking with Aleron and Marcus, Shiny with Natasha to little effect, and Frost to Teresa and Lucas. Yin came back a minute later holding a lock box, which held the questions in it. Everyone then took their seats, the authors sitting next to each other while Yin and Yang sat in the seats in the middle, facing the crowd which was building up. The camera crew was tweaking the cameras as well, with one of them swinging into position.

"We are live in 5…4…3…2…"

-0-

**Whelp, another chapter of the show down, however so many more to go. Current guest-stars are: The Element Commander, ShinyMew112, and Okami Saphira. Currently attending characters are: Aleron Bane, Marcus Flint, Teresa Yuna, Lucas Alexander, Natasha Cova, Michael Luck and Sarah Luck.**

**Submit those questions and they will be answered. Try and keep the truth and dare ones to a minimum though…got plenty of those as is.**


	12. Fallen Freedom

**This is a shout-out to everyone reading this. In case you aren't aware by now, or haven't been paying attention, there's a bill that can and will severally cripple the internet. The Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, also known as SOPA and PIPA respectively. These two acts are almost identical, but they're both taking different paths to come into effect. This chapter is purely non-canon to the questionnaire, for it is showing my take on what could happen to fan fiction authors everywhere.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any game series, nor any major company brands. I own only the characters and the short one-shot. I as sure as hell don't own SOPA or PIPA. If I did, those two would be gone long before it gets mentioned.**

-0-

_Ask the Characters_

_Fallen Freedom_

_Ask the Characters studio:_

Sword, arms folded behind his back, was leading the cast of characters to the stage for today's show. He was feeling as best as he could, since that not only was he back to normal, but also that his fans are eager for his return. Everyone following was in high spirits, including some of the serious ones like Natasha. He had a special event planned for everyone in attendance as well, planning to give each of them a gift close to the end of the show. He pushed open the doors leading to the stage with enthusiasm, cheers erupting from the gathered crowd.

"What is up everyone?" Sword greeted while everyone took their seats. The crowd erupted into cheering as Sword made his way to the center of the stage.

"I thank each and every one of my fans for helping the show get this far. I'm glad that you all like the stories I write, and even more for the helpful information to make them better. From the bottom of my heart, I thank every single one of you." Sword addressed to the crowd with open arms. "Now, without further ado, allow me to get this episode of Ask the Characters on the road." he stated, slamming his foot while the ever-so-familiar lock box shot up from the hardwood, landing neatly in the outstretched hand.

"Okay, let's get started." he said, opening the lock box. "First batch of questions are fro–" he was about to start, but a crash interrupted him

The two sets of doors leading to the main lobby were knocked off their hinges, flying several feet onto the floor. Immediately after, soldiers in SWAT armor stormed the place, rifles raised. Printed on each of them was the word SOPA in bright yellow letters. The people in the audience panicked, screams being heard throughout the studio. Everyone was caught off-guard as they stormed the stage. They all regained their senses, minus Sword, and started fighting back as the intruders tried to restraint them.

"**GET YOUR GOD D*** HANDS OFF OF ME!**" he heard Aleron yell, who was swiping at the armored men. After nicking a few, several of them pulled out tazers and discharged all of them at the same time into him, causing him to scream out.

Marcus was fighting them off as well, landing a few blows and sending some of the men flying. Every time they managed to get his arms behind his back and handcuff him, he would pull them apart and continue punching. Before he could throw one of the men, he got a full tazer discharge, along with a blast of pepper spray to his face. He was restrained as well, with a metal jacket being slapped on him.

"BROTHER! HELP ME!" Sarah cried out as she was being carried away by a few of the men. Michael went into a rage, turning into his lati form and shooting off towards his sister, plowing through everyone in his way. Before he could reach her though, a net was shot at him, binding him as he roughly fell to the floor.

"SARAH!" he called out before he was muzzled and taken away.

"This isn't happening…" Sword muttered in total shock. "Oh dear god this isn't happening…"

Natahsa had combat knives out, keeping the men at bay. Every time that one tried to get near, she would spin around, slashing at them. One of the men was able to sneak up on her and jump onto her, forcing her onto the ground. More crowded around her, slapping hand cuffs on her and taking her weapons away.

Teresa held onto Lucas tightly, horrified on what was going on. Both of them were cornered, with the men slowly closing in.

"T-Teresa… … …I'm s-s-s-scared…" Lucas stuttered, burying himself into Teresa.

"I-it'll be ok-k-k-kay Lucas. Everything's gonna be o-okay." Teresa tried to comfort, sliding down to the floor and curling up, cradling Lucas.

Sword couldn't take it anymore and demanded answers.

"JUST WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU ALL DOING?"

"Aleron's Sword." a voice harshly called out. "You are under arrest."

"Wait, what for?" Sword demanded turning to the source.

Making their way to the stage was the leader of the attack, the lesser grunts parting way.

"For the multiple copyright infringements of multiple parties, as well as the attempt to profit from said infringements."

"Infringeme–…What the hell makes you think I'm trying to get money from my work?"

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything said can and will be used against you in a court of law." the commander stated, marching towards Sword with a few grunts.

"No…no no no no nononononono! You won't take me away from my dreams! You'll only be able to take me by dragging me screaming to jail!" With that, he yanked the Yin-Yang Blade out, but before he could split it, he was tackled and pinned to the ground. The blade was taken away, in which Sword tried to reach out to it futilely.

"And with an assault charge, you just added another two years to your sentence, along with an additional one for resisting arrest." the leader simply said, kneeling down in front of Sword's face. "Alright, all suspects are rounded up. Lets lock them up."

-0-

"I'M INNOCENT I TELL YA! INNOCENT!" Sword yelled as he was being forced to his new 'home'.

In court, he was sentenced to seventy-eight years in prison, five for each of his stories, and the additional three for the attempted assault and resisting arrest, for copyright infringement. He was also stripped of all his money from his bank account, as well as his studio being repossessed. After a minute of forced walking, he was thrown unceremoniously into a steel-door cell, the door slamming shut. He banged on the door, demanding to be let out. After a full minute, he stopped and pressed his back to the door, sliding down it and sobbing as well.

"Why…why…why why why WHY?" he demanded, yelling the last part.

"Sword? Is that you?" a familiar voice called out.

Sword's head snapped up, recognizing the voice.

"EC?" Sword barely squeaked out.

"Oh god, they got you too?" EC spoke, stepping out from the shadows of the cell. His normally fine hair was messy, with him being dressed in a bright orange outfit like Sword.

Sword didn't answer as he broke further down into crying. One of his best friends was in jail too, and he was also one of the main reasons to take up writing.

"Sword are you okay?" EC asked, kneeling down to the sobbing former swordsman.

"Of course I'm not okay! Everything of mine was taken away! Every one of my characters were hauled off to god knows where, and I'm serving pretty much a f***ing life sentence here! NOTHING! IS! OKAY!" Sword yelled at EC, tears flowing from his face.

EC was taken aback from the outburst. Never has he seen Sword behave like such, remembering when he was in a slump of depression and he and another friend, NanoCarp, pulled him out of it. He wasn't sure on what to do to help his friend, so he went over to the cots of the cell. Resting on the lowest bunk was another orange jumpsuit-wearing person, with short brown hair. His arms were folded behind his head, looking up at the bottom of the higher-up cot.

"Hey, Nano?" EC asked, getting the persons attention.

"I guess Sword's here as well?" the teen, Nano, asked, answering one of EC's future questions.

"Yeah, he is. He's in another one of those slumps. Think you can help me out with him?"

Nano turned his head and looked over at the sobbing Sword. Deep down, he felt torn up about him being like this. Last time he was like this, it was the stress of his stories getting to him. Here, it was an entirely different and obvious reason. He shifted his body, getting up from the cot and walking over to him, along with EC. Nano lowered himself to eye-level next to Sword, who didn't notice him until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and seen Nano staring at him, his expression of sadness and concern.

"N-N-Nano…?" Sword stuttered, not wanting to believe another of his friends was wrongfully imprisoned.

"Yeah, it's me Sword." Nano simply answered. He placed a hand on top of Swords head and ruffled his hair. It somewhat worked, making Sword feel slightly better yet he still felt miserable overall. Before he could speak, there was a click, and an object fell in between the two, landing in Sword's lap.

"H-huh? What's this…?" Sword questioned, picking up the object.

It turned out to be a newspaper, almost as thick as a Sunday paper. Sword was able to unroll it and look at the front page. When he did, he gasped, the paper slipping out of his hands from pure shock. Nano arced an eyebrow and took the paper. EC came over and looked as well, curious to see what had Sword so spooked.

What they read horrified them…

**Fan Fiction Authors and Fan Artists: Promoting Piracy or Terrorism?**

_February 10th, 2012_

"_Half a month after the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act went into effect as of January 24th, 2012, over two hundred thousand arrests were made. All were infringing copyrights to a massive degree. Almost all were affiliated with the infringing sites such as FanFiction, and it's sister site, FictionPress, along with DeviantArt, Tumblr, Twitter, Youtube and many others. Many of them resisted arrest, some killing a few of the officers sent after them._

_It was later found that each of their works had hidden messages of terrorism, meaning that they were promoting said subject through their literature. Some of these messages were blunt, while others were cleverly hidden, resulting in life sentences of most cases. Those who weren't promoting such violence were sentenced to five years in prison, plus an additional five for every evidence of copyright infringement found against them. The list of Tried and Guilty 'Authors' is on page 11 of this paper."_

Both of the readers were shocked upon reading the topic, and were even more so upon seeing the list of 'guilty' authors. There were hundreds of them, a few of which were very popular in the author realm. The list went over six whole pages, with a segment branding dozens of authors as terrorists.

"…there's no hope…" they heard Sword mutter. "…there's no freedom… … …there's nothing we can do… … …the world is now running purely on lies…"

There were options set out for the three, two of which could go with the first. The third only had a single choice…

…and it was the only way out for the swordsman…

-0-

**Again, this is my view on SOPA and PIPA(or, as called by a friend, the Stupid Over Protective Act and Pathetic Idiots Pass Act)and the impact it could have on our lives. I know that this isn't my best in writing, but this was written in pretty much less than half a day, faster than EC's birthday gift, but besides the point. The news article I made is what the government/press could potentially say. Not one-hundred percent sure, but it's likely.**

**The segment at the end is what some people would do if they were wrongfully imprisoned for life just from doing what they love. The phrase 'The only way out' should be a little familiar to those who know what it means.**


	13. To Reboot a Questionnaire

**Before anyone gets excited, this is more or less a bit of a…scenario chapter. I'll explain at the end.**

-0-0-0-0-

Everyone, including the guests, sat down in the rough-leather chairs that was on-stage. The Luck duo were sitting in seats next to each other. Natasha had a leg folded over the other, hands resting on the knee as she waited. Teresa held Lucas as per usual, lightly stroking above his forehead with a finger, the victini seeming to enjoy it a bit.

"We're live in five…four…three…two…"

But before the feed could start, everything suddenly took on a bluish hue, all frozen in place. From the expressions down to strands of hair stood motionless, unmoving in their spots. After a few frozen seconds ticked by, it all started to reverse.

The countdown going up and everyone getting back up from their seats, walking backwards off the stage.

The group moving away from the entrance, some of them splitting off down one hall.

EC stepping back through the door, it vanishing in an explosion.

The hallway detonation and reform, an explosion reverting back to a small rod.

The morning of that day.

Show time from yesterday, of a pokemon theme.

Sword splitting into Yin and Yang.

First gathering and show.

The founding of the studio.

The author finding said building.

The images abruptly stopped as a pair of hands clapped shut like they were holding a sphere. The hands were covered in a navy-blue silk, slowly showing they belonged to a being that wore a matching-colored robe. Held by the persons arm was a staff, a form of clock at the tip of it, though having many more hands than a normal one.

The head of the figure was robed, though one could make out the image of a clock as well if they were to get a good angle. The figure slowly opened his hands, seeing a small sphere of light in the middle. A small smile shown itself, the sphere floating up as a line of light formed itself in the air in front of him. The sphere shrunk down and floated up above the line, it branching out and connecting to the sphere.

**_AtC–EC_**

Those letters faded in, the full system fading shortly after. A few seconds passed before he felt a hand land on his right shoulder, glancing over.

"Thanks Chrono." a person said to the figure. "I'll handle it from here."

"Of course, Soldier-Citizen Sword." Chrono answered, grabbing hold of the staff with one hand. With a smart tap from the bottom of the staff against the asphalt, the robed figure started to break up into binary code, flying up and into the sky.

"Sheesh…" Sword muttered, scratching the back of his head. "I feel that I kinda need to fine-tune the Enforcers a bit, especially how they would label me and such…" he lowered his hand, looking at the vacant building. "Still, I think it was right to start anew…"

A small grin showed up on his face, walking up to the entrance of the building. Taped on the window to it was a notice, stating that it belonged to him, with a sub-label saying that trespassers would be prosecuted by law and the whole nine yards.

"Still, I wonder how things will turn out, especially since that…" Sword trailed off, closing his eyes as he sighed.

The one person who was a bit of an idol to him had died recently, claimed by disease. One of said deceased friends posted a notice about the situation, and it wasn't until half a month later that Sword was able to find out. Shaking his head to try and clear out the creeping sorrow, he opened his eyes to gaze into the empty lobby.

"Well, no use trying to let the past bog me down…or would it be future in this case?" he grinned slightly, getting the key to the building and unlocked the entrance, walking in after.

-0-0-0-0-

**Please forget the rather questionable quality of this. It was written largely around two to three in the morning, and the lazy side of me doesn't want to try and comb through it lest it gets bogged down like the rest. -_-**

**Aaaaanyway, lemme explain this, especially close to the end; To those who have been fans of fellow FFN user The Element Commander and have been unaware till now, I'm sorry to say that he was claimed by disease at the end of last month. Which disease is unknown to me but possibly known to his friends. I was able to find out largely through two scheduled updates that never went through for his major story, We Are The Smashers 2.**

**Secondly, back to the main topic. I am rebooting the questionnaire, but this is largely due to me not wanting to brush through the last couple of chapters and edit them, hence the…so to say, time-reversal scenario. Due to personal reasons, I will not be adding onto this version of the questionnaire, rather submitting it as a new submission. My DA and FA (DeviantArt and FurAffinity respectively) profiles will also receive this, resulting in potentially a lot of scenarios happening, serious or wacky depending on the current situation. New starting cast, and the potential newcomers will include those I have created over the period of two years on my DA profile. However, due to the sheer amount of series that some of them come from, the reboot will be put in the Pokemon - Xovers segment. It'll be focused mainly on the former topic, but the Xovers part is largely for safety.**

**I'm the Tao Swordsman, and I'll see you all in the reboot! :D**


End file.
